The government of India has decided to set up a counter-terrorism division in the Ministry of External Affairs to handle the diplomacy involved in the fight against international terrorism.

Indian Foreign Service officer Meera Shankar has been promoted as Additional Secretary (Counter-Terrorism) and given the task of setting up the division.

Considered an expert on some of the South Asian countries, this will be her first exposure to counter-terrorism and it's co-ordination in the diplomatic field.

According to sources in MEA, this division would be similar to a division set up in the United States state department after 1979. According to sources in the ministry, the structure and the charter of the division are yet to be finalised.

G Parthasarthy, a former diplomat, said, "I welcome this division. After 9/11 [attack on the twin towers], the government of India has been signing agreements with countries to tackle terrorism. Many joint working groups have been created. But there is no coordinating body."

Unlike America, the MEA in India has been dealing with the diplomatic aspects of counter-terrorism in an ill-organised and ad hoc manner.

At present the respective area divisions, each headed by joint secretary, handle counter-terrorism diplomacy. For example, the division dealing with United States, popularly known as the American desk, handles all interactions with the United States on this subject.

Currently, the United States-Canada division is headed by J S Jayant Prasad while Pakistan-Afghanistan-Iran desk is headed by J S Arunkumar Singh.

The National Democratic Alliance, after coming into power in 1998, set up joint working groups on counter-terrorism with a number of foreign countries. The Indian delegations to these joint working groups consist of representatives of the Intelligence Bureau, the Research and Analysis Wing and other concerned departments and are presently led by the Joint Secretary in the MEA in charge of the respective country.

It is expected that the new division of Meera Shankar would take over from the various area desks.

Major general (retired) Afsir Karim said, "Counter-terrorism is always an active action on ground. This division will hopefully tackle foreign policy aspect of the terrorism. I think there is no harm in having such division but we will have to wait and see."

During high-level meetings, the United States have come forward with offers of assistance in fields such as cyber terrorism, terrorism involving use of weapons of mass destruction and crisis management techniques.

In the absence of a nodal division within the MEA, the United States division handles the follow-up action on such offers.

It is still to be decided as to how the proposed new division would function.

The National Security Review for 2002 submitted by the Third National Security Advisory Board to the government in December 2002, had recommended the creation of a counter-terrorism division in the Ministry of Home Affairs.

NSAB experts apparently were unaware of the intention of the government to set up this division in the MEA.

On the recommendation of the special task force on the intelligence apparatus headed by G C Saxena, governor of Jammu and Kashmir, set up in 2000, the government has already set up something called 'Multi-Disciplinary Centre on Counter-Terrorism' under the umbrella of the Intelligence Bureau which functions within the MHA. Currently Special Director of the Intelligence Bureau Ajit Doval is heading this division.  

The Multi-Disciplinary Centre is not yet fully functioning due to the reluctance of other agencies and departments to spare experts to work under the supervision of the Intelligence Bureau.

With the creation of one more agency it remains to be seen as to how India battles against international terrorism at the diplomatic and operational levels.