The top NIA official said the problem in fighting terrorism is that these three silos are not in tandem and do not merge with each other. National Security Adviser Ajit Doval during the National Investigation Agency (NIA)'s national conference of Chiefs of Anti-Terrorism Squad/ Special Task Force, in New Delhi, Monday, Oct. 14, 2019

NEW DELHI: National Security Adviser (NSA) Ajit Doval on Monday said that one of the biggest hurdles in fighting terrorism is the lack of one central counter-terrorism agency and also that various agencies the Army, Intelligence Bureau, RAW and the NIA were "not working in-tandem".

Doval was speaking at the two-day NIA's national conference of chiefs of Anti-Terrorism Squad and Special Task Force (STF) that began here on Monday.

He asserted that that "physical action" against terrorists, "intelligence" gathering and "investigation" of terrorism cases were not in tandem with each other. He also said that Centre lacks a "one single counter-terrorist" agency that merges all the three components (physical action, intelligence and investigation).

"I am happy that many states have ATS, STF and other specialised agencies that have a dual advantage. It has been my personal view that there could be one single counter-terrorist agency which could have all the three components integrated and merged but for some reasons that doesn't happen," said Doval.

"But in the states, their STF are collecting some amount of intelligence, taking physical action and if they contribute to the investigation of the cases, probably that helps," said Doval.

"Physical action only counters what is in the present while what happens in future is decided by what the course of the investigation is, what happens in court-of-law as the terrorists have to be established as criminals," said the NSA.

The top NIA official said the problem in fighting terrorism is that these three silos are not in tandem and do not merge with each other.

"They work not in tandem but separately even when they work very efficiently. What Army might be doing in Jammu and Kashmir, or IB or RAW doing somewhere or NIA is doing, probably where is the connect?" he asked.