Prahaar: India unveils first national counter terrorism policy
text_fields
The Ministry of Home Affairs on Monday unveiled India’s first counter terrorism policy, Prahaar, outlining a multi-layered strategy based on zero tolerance, intelligence-led prevention and disruption of extremist violence.
The policy aims to deny terrorists, their financiers, and supporters access to funds, weapons, and safe havens.
The National Counter Terrorism Policy and Strategy details how India plans to confront evolving threats, including cross-border jihadist networks, drone-based smuggling, cyber radicalisation, and funding through cryptocurrency.
Prahaar is built on seven pillars: prevention of terror attacks, response mechanisms, aggregating internal capacities, human rights and rule of law-based processes, reducing conditions conducive to terrorism, aligning international counter terrorism efforts, and ensuring recovery and resilience through a whole-of-society approach.
The document identifies state-sponsored terrorism from across India’s borders and refers to global organisations such as Al Qaeda and ISIS attempting to incite violence through sleeper cells. It notes a history of instability in India’s immediate neighbourhood and says some countries have used terrorism as an instrument of state policy, while adding that India does not link terrorism to any specific religion, ethnicity, nationality, or civilisation.
For the first time in a consolidated policy, the government highlighted risks from CBRNED material, including chemical, biological, radiological, nuclear, explosive, and digital threats, and warned of misuse of emerging technologies by state and non-state actors.
The intelligence-guided model places the Multi-Agency Centre and Joint Task Force on Intelligence within the Intelligence Bureau as nodal platforms for real-time sharing of inputs. Local police are designated first responders, with a tiered response involving state special forces and central units. The National Security Guard is the nodal counterterror force, while the National Investigation Agency and state police handle investigations and prosecution.
The policy also underscores that laws such as the Unlawful Activities Prevention Act operate with due regard to human rights and legal safeguards.