India-US to sign pact on exchange of information on terrorists

NEW DELHI: India and the US are likely to sign a pact on exchange of information on terrorists on a real time basis during the counter-terrorism and homeland security dialogue scheduled to be held in December.

The Homeland Security Presidential Directive (HSPD-6) is a model text agreement proposed by the United States to India for exchange of terrorist screening information between Terrorist Screening Centre (TCS) of the US and an Indian agency.

The agreement is likely to be signed during the US-India Counter-terrorism and Homeland Security Cooperation dialogue to be attended by Home Minister Rajnath Singh and his American counterpart Jeh Johnson in next December.

The US has already finalised such agreements with 30 countries.

TSC is a multi agency organisation administered by FBI which consolidates several terrorist watch list maintained by different US government agencies into single terrorist data base on terror suspects.

The data base include name of the terror suspect, nationality, date of birth, photos, finger prints (if any), passport number.

The US-India Homeland Security Dialogue takes place between India's Home Ministry and the US Department of Homeland Security to enhance homeland security cooperation and discuss building capacity in cyber security and critical infrastructure protection, countering illicit finance, global supply chain security, megacity policing, and science and technology.

These senior-level exchanges facilitate strategic homeland security partnership and enhanced operational cooperation in investigations, capacity building, and countering threats.

Law enforcement engagement proposals include sharing lessons learned and best practices in SWAT team training and responding to mass casualty exercises, improving both nations' capabilities to respond to terrorist incidents and natural disasters.