| 'Prahaar': India’s first-ever counter-terrorism policy launched | | Al-Qaeda, ISIS, the dark web: The unholy alliance targeting Punjab, Jammu- Kashmir | | Sanjay Pandita
Early Times Report
Jammu, Feb 23: The Union Government on Monday unveiled the country's first comprehensive counter-terrorism policy, christened 'Prahaar', laying out a structured, multi-layered national strategy anchored in zero tolerance toward terrorism in all its forms.
Announced by the Union Home Ministry, the policy identifies seven strategic pillars: prevention of terror attacks, swift and proportionate responses, aggregating internal capacities for a whole-of-government approach, human rights and rule-of-law-based processes, addressing conditions that enable radicalization, shaping international counter-terrorism efforts, and building societal recovery and resilience.
The policy document candidly acknowledges that India has faced state-sponsored cross-border terrorism for decades, with jihadi outfits and their front organizations continuing to plan and execute attacks on Indian soil.
Global terror groups including Al-Qaeda and ISIS have attempted to foment violence through sleeper cells, while handlers operating from across the border increasingly leverage drones, encrypted communications, dark web infrastructure, and cryptocurrency to facilitate attacks — particularly in Punjab and Jammu & Kashmir.
The document also flags the growing nexus between organized criminal networks and terrorist groups, the misuse of social media and instant messaging platforms for propaganda and recruitment, and the emerging threat posed by CBRNED materials — covering chemical, biological, radiological, nuclear, explosive, and digital threats.
At its core, Prahaar is an intelligence-guided framework, with primacy accorded to intelligence gathering and its rapid dissemination to operational agencies. The Multi Agency Centre (MAC) and the Joint Task Forc Prevention of terror attacks to protect Indian citizens and interests.
Human rights and ‘Rule of Law’ based processes for mitigation of threats.
Attenuating the conditions enabling terrorism, including radicalization.
Aligning and shaping the international efforts to counter terrorism.
The counter-terrorism strategy of India, ‘PRAHAAR’, flows from these ideals and is predicated on the following:
· Prevention of terror attacks to protect Indian citizens and interests.
· Responses, which are swift and proportionate to the threat posed. Aggregating internal capacities for achieving synergy in a whole-of-government approach.
· Human rights and ‘Rule of Law’ based processes for mitigation of threats.
· Attenuating the conditions enabling terrorism, including radicalization.
· Aligning and shaping the international efforts to counter terrorism.
· Recovery and resilience through a whole-of-society approach.
India's critical economic infrastructure, including power grids, railways, aviation, ports, and its defence and space sectors, has been brought within the policy's protective ambit as well.
Notably, the policy reaffirms that India does not link terrorism to any religion, ethnicity, nationality, or civilization — a position the government describes as the bedrock of its principled zero-tolerance approach.
While acknowledging a history of instability in its immediate neighborhood and the use of terrorism as an instrument of state policy by some regional actors, India asserts that there can be no justification for violence under any circumstance. |
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