The cabinet has decided to task the prime minister’s security adviser retired major general Tareq Ahmed Siddique with coordinating the intelligence agencies. The political section of the home ministry on Wednesday issued a circular on the cabinet decision.

A high official of the ministry said ‘The fourth meeting on law and order of October 29 decided to form a committee, headed by retired Maj Gen Siddique, to coordinate the agencies’ operations. ‘The circular has been issued to inform the respective ministries about the decision,’ said the official, who preferred to remain unnamed. A copy of the circular was also sent to the secretary of the prime minister’s office. The circular, containing only the name of the head, did not detail the committee’s scope of work and authority.

The prime minister on her winding up speech in parliament on November 5 said the government has formed a committee to coordinate the spy agencies to improve the law and order. ‘We are reactivating the intelligence agencies. Previously, different intelligence agencies used to perform their duties in different ways,’ the prime minister said. ‘I have been receiving information from them (spy agencies) after every 15 days. I will tell nothing more now.’

Opposition MP Oli Ahmed on the same day asked the government for confining the activities of military’s spy outfit DGFI inside the cantonment only. ‘Then incidents such as the BDR mutiny (Feb 25-26) would not take place in future.’ ‘You have to take pre-emptive measures. Strengthen the intelligence agencies, if necessary,’ he added. The home minister, Shara Khatun, recently commented that the incidents of August 15 and November 3, 1975, grenade attack of August 21, 2004 and February’s BDR carnage stemmed from intelligence failure.

-New Age