NEW DELHI: The home ministry is working on a national counter-terror policy and strategy – likely to pitch for a uniform, cohesive and zero-tolerance approach among various central and state agencies – and shall unveil it in 2025 as the next big step towards dismantling the entire terror ecosystem, home minister Amit Shah shared on Thursday.
Addressing an anti-terrorism conference being organised by the National Investigation Agency (NIA) here, Shah told senior officers of various counter-terror agencies that they all “need to work together to fight terrorism, terrorists and their ecosystem”.
“MHA, as part of its pro-active approach, is ready with its next step..In a few months from now, we will bring out a national counter-terrorism policy and strategy in which your role will be important,” he told them.
Shah said that while the Centre and MHA can prepare policy and strategy documents and also implement own role envisaged by them, law and order being a ‘state’ subject, the real fight against terror must be waged by the state police forces. “All central agencies will support the states in every way, from gathering intelligence to taking action. But until one group is created with a ‘zero-tolerance to terror’ mood, the national counter-terror policy and strategy cannot succeed,” he underlined, while batting for a ‘whole-of-govt’ approach.
The home minister sought to impress on the need for states to work in close coordination both among themselves and with the central agencies, saying that while states may have geographical and constitutional limitations, terror operations transcend inter-state and global boundaries. He asked thanas to be anti-terror ready by training their officers in use of artificial intelligence to analyse various police/criminal databases, including those maintained by NIA. The NIA must move from “a need to know” approach to a ‘need to share’ and eventually a “duty to share” approach.
“To deal with new challenges like terror financing and crypto, a coordinated approach must be adopted from police stations up to the DGP office,” said Shah.
He said the govt has come up with a model anti-terrorism squad (ATS), model special task force (STF) and model police training manual for the states and Union Territories, which, if adopted, will work as a common structure and platform to deal with the menace of terrorism.
“The SOPs can be tweaked by the states as per their requirements. Coordination through ATS and STF does not undermine the federal rights of states,” assured Shah.
Reminding the police officers of PM Modi’s goal to make India a developed power by 2047, the home minister said there would be security challenges along the way, and insisted on taking on the terror ecosystem with a unified, anti-terror ecosystem.
Stating that the Modi govt, in its last 10 years in power, had adopted a zero-tolerance approach and cracked down on both terror and terror financing, Shah said the improved security situation was evident from terror incidents having declined by 70% as compared to the preceding 10 years.
Shah asked DGP-rank officers present at the conference, to invoke the Unlawful Activities (Prevention) Act (UAPA) to deal with terror. He shared that NIA has filed a chargesheet in 498 of the 632 cases registered by it, with its conviction rate being almost 95%.