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India on Monday released its first comprehensive anti-terror policy, calling it ‘PRAHAAR’, saying that national actions, coupled with international and
regional cooperation, are key elements in addressing transnational terrorism challenges as terrorist groups based outside nowadays use the infrastructure, logistics, and terrain knowledge of local outfits for launching attacks. Unveiling the new doctrine, the government said that India has been affected by sponsored terrorism from across the border, with Jihadi terror outfits continuing to plan, coordinate, facilitate, and execute terror attacks in India.
What's The Threat
Unveiling the new anti-terror policy, the Ministry of Home Affairs said, "There has been a history of sporadic instability in the immediate neighborhood of India, which has often given rise to ungoverned spaces. Besides, a few countries in the region have sometimes used terrorism as an instrument of state policy."
"Notwithstanding this, India does not link terrorism to any specific religion, ethnicity, nationality, or civilization. It has always denounced terrorism and its use by any actor for achieving any stated or unstated ends, unambiguously and unequivocally," the government added.
Adding further, the government said, "India has always stood by the victims of terrorism and has been steadfast in its belief that there can be no justification whatsoever for violence in the world. It is this principled approach which informs the Indian policy of 'zero tolerance’ against terrorism."
India Raises Concern Over Sponsored Terrorism, Jihadi Outfits
The government further said that India has has been affected by sponsored terrorism from across the border, with Jihadi terror outfits as well as their frontal organisations continuing to plan, coordinate, facilitate, and execute terror attacks in India.
The country has been on the target of global terrorist groups such as Al-Qaeda and the Islamic State of Iraq and Syria (ISIS), which have been trying to incite violence in the country through sleeper cells.
Adding further, they said that violent extremists operating from the soils of foreign countries have hatched conspiracies to promote terrorism. Their handlers from across the border frequently use the latest technologies, including the use of drones, for facilitating terror-related activities and attacks in Punjab and Jammu and Kashmir.
Adding more, it said, "Increasingly, terrorist groups are engaging organized criminal networks for logistics and recruitment to execute and facilitate terror strikes in India. For propaganda, communication, funding, and guiding terror attacks, these terror groups use social media platforms as well as ‘instant messaging applications’.
Technological advancements like encryption, dark web, crypto wallets, etc., have allowed these groups to operate anonymously. Disrupting/intercepting terrorists’ efforts to access and use CBRNED (Chemical, Biological, Radiological, Nuclear, Explosive, Digital) material remains a challenge for Counter Terrorism (CT) agencies, it added.
The threat of state and non-state actors misusing drones and robotics for lethal purposes remains another area of concern, even as criminal hackers and nation-states continue to target India through cyber-attacks, the government said.
How Government Plans Recovery and Resilience
In the new PRAHAAR policy, the government will engages a team of doctors, psychologists, lawyers and other members of civil society, including NGOs, religious and community leaders, to sensitize and reintegrate the
affected community. The civil administration takes lead in reconstruction and restoration efforts.
How The New Anti-Terror Policy Will Be Aligned
The government said that it would look for agency-to-agency engagements for intelligence sharing. Moreover, it informed, India has entered into various agreements/arrangements like Mutual Legal Assistance Treaty (MLAT), Extradition Treaty/Extradition Arrangement (ET/EA), Joint Working Group (JWG) and Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) with foreign partners for information/evidence sharing and other legal cooperation.
