Wary of Islamic State, NIA sleuths take Arabic lessons

LUCKNOW: Officers of National Investigating Agency (NIA) in Lucknow are on a new mission these days: learning Arabic.

Indeed, acquiring proficiency in this language has become necessary for officers dealing with terror cases and counter-insurgency operations in India. The reason: several youths from India have either joined or are suspected to have joined Islamic State (IS) whose Arabic-speaking members are behind a series of terror attacks across the world.

Senior NIA officers say the move to have people with in-house Arabic proficiency would reduce their dependence on third-party translators (a security risk, to begin with) for decoding documents or tapped conversations.

“There have been instances when we had to rush in experts from our Hyderabad branch,” said a senior officer. He, however, refused to disclose the number of such training programmes being run across India, citing security reasons.

For nearly two hours every day, NIA sleuths are taking a break from their regular work to learn Arabic in Lucknow.

They assemble in a hall, which serves as a classroom, as part of a training programme to upgrade their linguistic skills.

The alarm bells were sounded early this year when ahead of the Republic Day celebrations, the NIA arrested 13 suspected IS sympathisers from Bangalore, Tumkur, Mangalore, Hyderabad, Mumbai and Lucknow.

The arrested youths were said to be part of a group named ‘Janood-ul-Khalifa-e-Hind’ (Army of Caliph of India), a terror group which has ideologies similar to that of IS. Apart from electronic devices that can be used in detonating explosives, NIA sleuths also recovered jihadi literature, videos and plans to organise training camps.

“A couple of months ago, I got a call from the NIA office to appear for an interview to teach Arabic to their staff,” said Murtuza Hussain Rizvi.

A resident of Tehseen Ganj locality of Old Lucknow, Rizvi acquired proficiency and a degree in the language from Syria, probably why he was shortlisted by NIA. For the past one month, he has been trying to teach Arabic to 30 NIA sleuths, including its DIG and SP, in a posh residential area of Gomti Nagar in Lucknow where a house serves as the headquarters of the agency for now. A new, modern office building will become operational early next year.

A five-day-a-week teaching schedule is followed. Rizvi says not all his students are quick on the uptake. Some turn up grudgingly for lessons only when their bosses attend class. “But I can assure you that with time and training, I would soon groom them to speak the language like a native Arab,” he said.

“I just have a couple of years of service left. Hence, learning the language is not a gateway to a career but more of a compulsion fuelled by desire to serve national security,” said a junior rank officer.

“We have a staff strength of 56. But some of our teams are always on the move as we also have operational jurisdiction in six adjoining states —Bihar, Jharkand, Uttarakhandm Madhya Pradesh and Chattisgarh,” said a senior NIA officer.

He said apart from upgrading their language skills, the sleuths were also acquainted with Islamic culture and history to give them a better understanding of the region.