While he did not absolve the Pakistani establishment of its “inability to rein in the ISI”, the NSA said that “very often such agencies develop their own momentum and are difficult to control”.

“Our real problem is the need for much more vigilance on ground. There is no al-Qaeda on the ground in India as yet, but we have to be wary of random groups and individuals for various reasons — sympathy for violent groups for social, personal or economic reasons — and be alert to them. We need many more eyes and ears on the ground,” he said.

Asked about the perception in the minority community, especially on the profiling of young Muslim men and treating them as suspects whenever such incidents take place, Narayanan said: “It is unfortunate if they feel they are being targeted unfairly. Often when such incidents take place in a Muslim majority area, like in the mosque in Hyderabad, the investigative agency’s drill is to round up people in the vicinity for questioning. Perceptions get formed that there is some kind of profiling on. Often monitoring and evaluating information takes time, and the minority community can sometimes feel victimised.” “At higher levels of investigation, we use techniques like social network investigation, spectrum analysis or other sophisticated methodology. Often such techniques don’t percolate down to the level of junior investigative officers. We are making efforts to refine techniques and we hope we can reduce random arrests. We are very hopeful of limiting perceptions of profiling to the extent possible,” he said.