Zero-day terror: Let's go for AI-aided national security

A full embrace of artificial intelligence will help India leap ahead in the prevention of terror attacks

- NARAIN BATRA

On 22 April, the calm of Baisaran Valley near Pahalgam was ruptured by violence of the most brutal kind. In what is now being called the deadliest terror attack aimed at civilians in India since 2008, 26 tourists were murdered in cold blood by militants claiming allegiance to The Resistance Front (TRF), a known proxy of Lashkar-e-Taiba based in Pakistan. This was not just a horrendous act of terror, for India, it was also an intelligence failure and a tragedy with profound strategic consequences.

India, a nuclear-armed state with one of the world's largest armies and a formidable intelligence network, failed to foresee an attack in one of its most heavily patrolled and sensitive regions. This is India's 'zero-day' event, a cybersecurity term that refers to a previously unknown vulnerability exploited by attackers before it's patched. Kashmir's picturesque facade had, perhaps, lulled policymakers into a misplaced sense of normalcy. But beneath it lay dormant terror networks waiting for their opportunity.

The question India must now ask is this: How can India predict and prevent the next attack? The answer is not just more boots on the ground, but more intelligence, better integration and superior technology. India must make a decisive shift towards AI-enhanced national security.

India's counterterrorism strategy remains a mix of centralized intelligence agencies and military deployment in volatile areas like Jammu and Kashmir. But this system is often reactive, bureaucratic and siloed. It is good at response, but weak at prediction.