India unveils its first counter-terrorism policy

The government on Monday unveiled the country’s first counter-terrorism policy, “Prahaar”, setting out a multi-layered strategy based on “zero tolerance”, intelligence-led prevention and disruption of extremist violence that aims to deny terrorists, their financiers and supporters access to funds, weapons and safe havens.
The policy unveiled by the home ministry is based on seven key pillars to counter the terror threats emanating from India or abroad — prevention, responses, aggregating internal capacities, human rights and “Rule of Law”-based processes, attenuating the conditions enabling terrorism including radicalisation, aligning and shaping the international efforts to counter terrorism and recovery and resilience through a whole-of-society approach.
Stating that India has consistently 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, the document said it is this principled approach that informs New Delhi’s policy of “zero tolerance” against terrorism.
The policy lists out technological evolution, which offers terrorists a cloak of invisibility, making it difficult to penetrate their nefarious scheming or track their funds. It described India’s approach in preventing and countering threats as “proactive” and “intelligence-guided”.
Under its prevention strategy, primacy is given to intelligence gathering and dissemination to executive agencies to neutralise threats, with a special emphasis on disrupting terror-funding networks through the legal framework under Indian laws.
Close partnerships have been established between central agencies and state police forces through the multi-agency centre and the joint task force on intelligence in the Intelligence Bureau, the document said.
The document highlighted misuse of internet for communication, recruitment, glorification of jihad and other terror-related activities, which are countered through proactive disruption of such cyber activities, online networks of terrorist groups and their propaganda and recruitment by intelligence and counter-terror agencies.
The policy said issues of poverty and unemployment among vulnerable communities are addressed through various government schemes and initiatives to prevent inimical elements from misusing these conditions to their advantage.