 The NSO was created as a fall-out of the Dimka coup.Prior to the coup, internal security and intelligence was handled by the police Special Branch, a Secret Police, while external intelligence was conducted by the Research Department (RD), a unit of the External Affairs ministry.The Special Branch had failed to obtain intelligence about the coup and the coup plotters before the coup was executed; the Inspector General of police at the time MD Yussuf excused this failure as the inability of the Special Branch to police the military.