Advanced anti-terror training for cops on modern apps
Times of India | 5 November 2024
Kolkata: This weekend, beginning on Thursday, Special Task Force (STF) officers of Bengal Police and Kolkata Police will receive training on some of the most modern but obscure apps that are now being increasingly used by terror organisations.
The training will be part of a special anti-terror conference being organised by NIA at New Delhi and supported by central agencies. Several other issues related to fighting terror in the country, including developing and sharing information among agencies, will come up for discussion as per the agenda.
This will be a special training module following the unrest in Bangladesh and amid reports of several top terror leaders being released from Bangladeshi jails and trying to regroup on neighbouring soil. Several mobile messenger apps have already been blocked, but multiple terror modules keep shifting their base app to avoid detection. In all cases, multiple fake profiles are used. In 2024 alone, 18 such messenger services were blocked by agencies.
The conference is also likely to include the threat of digital arrests, a fraud increasingly conducted from outside the country. It refers to a deceptive tactic used by cybercriminals, who falsely claim to have the authority to arrest an individual through digital means, often over the phone or via online communication. The conference may also cover terror funding, where gaming apps can come under scrutiny.
Last year, Union home minister Amit Shah highlighted the need to work towards creating a common training module so that uniformity can be brought to the methodology of combating terrorism. The training is stated to be part of that module.
Sources said several huge databases have been created, with all central and state agencies being asked to make multidimensional use of these databases to succeed in the fight against terrorism.