CIA chief meets heads of Intelligence Bureau, Research and Analysis Wing

Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) chief Leon E Panetta held extensive rounds of talks with chiefs of intelligence agencies and national security advisor MK Narayanan relating to the presence of terror groups in neighbouring Pakistan and Afghanistan, and their impact on India.

Panetta met Research and Analysis Wing (RAW) director KC Verma for two hours in the afternoon yesterday, where matters pertaining to cooperation on counter-terrorism and intelligence-sharing mechanism on groups like Lashkar-e-Taiba, HuJI and Jaish-e-Mohammed were discussed, official sources said.

Later in the evening, he had an hour-long meeting with Intelligence Bureau (IB) chief Rajiv Mathur, they said.

The CIA director, who arrived here late Friday night after his visit to Pakistan, also had a nearly 30-minute meeting with the national security advisor.

Sources said they discussed ways to further strengthen the cooperation between India and the US in sharing real-time intelligence.

Panetta who is on a three-day visit to India also discussed other issues of mutual interest. The sister agency of the CIA in the US — FBI — is probing the role of US citizen David Headley and Pakistani-Canadian citizen Tahawwur Rana in plotting terror strikes in the US and India.

The cooperation between the two sides in the Headley probe was mentioned during the meeting, they added.