Security agencies from both US and India are bracing for one of their biggest challenges when US President Barack Obama and Prime Minister Narendra Modi share the dais on India's Republic Day.
Sources say security on the ground and in the air this January 26 will be of a kind ‘never seen before’. The US’ secret service, CIA, Navy Seals and India’s Research and Analysis Wing (R&AW), Intelligence Bureau, paramilitary forces and Army will be working together round-the-clock to ensure the safety of the leaders of the two largest democracies who face the highest order of threat of any world leader today.
Sources in intelligence agencies say that both Obama and Modi face maximum danger from some of the world’s deadliest terrorist organizations, especially the Islamic State of Iraq and Syria (ISIS), al-Qaida and Lashkar-e-Taiba. According to reports, Obama receives over 20 threats a day while Modi also receives over 10 daily.
While the CIA, R&AW, IB and other intelligence agencies will work in the background to gather information about suspicious activities on the web, the US Navy Seals, secret service, SPG, NSG, paramilitary forces and Army would secure the ground. The two nations don’t want to take any chance in the wake of reports of Indian youths joining the ISIS or being motivated over the internet. Sources say that in the coming seven-eight weeks, it is expected that more than 100 intelligence inputs will be generated by the CIA, IB and R&AW and filtered messages having special and general information about suspicious activities would be shared with security forces.
A senior officer described security at this year's R-Day will be “unmatchable“. Without going into details, the officer said, “Usually , around 25,000 police, paramilitary and other officers work alone in Delhi to make R-Day safer. But this time, the number of security, Army officers may touch 45,000 with secret service and SPG closely monitoring every security detail.”
