Amit Shah calls for 10-year PRAHAAR on terror

Union Home Minister Amit Shah inaugurates the Conference on ‘PRAHAAR - CT Policy and Strategy’, in New Delhi on Monday. (ANI)

Calling for a stronger, institutionalised counter-terrorism framework with a whole-of-society approach, Union Home Minister Amit Shah inaugurated a conference on ‘PRAHAAR – CT Policy and Strategy’ in New Delhi on Monday.

PRAHAAR stands for the seven pillars of – Prevention, Response, Aggregating Internal Capacities, Human Rights, Attenuating Conditions for Terrorism, Aligning International Efforts, and Recovery and Resilience.

Shah said the government under Prime Minister Narendra Modi had adopted a zero-tolerance policy against all forms terrorism.

He stressed the need to strengthen the PRAHAAR strategy through continuous analysis of terror incidents and by establishing a concrete mechanism for the next 10 years.

Shah said the principles of PRAHAAR must reach the thana level. He also underlined the importance of coordination among all stakeholders to prevent delays in action. Shah also launched a new “extradition portal”, which he said would help expedite efforts to bring back fugitives from abroad, and urged state police forces to set up teams dedicated to fugitive tracking.

The conference is expected to serve as a platform for coordination between Central and state agencies on counter-terror policy, operational preparedness, inter-agency response and long-term resilience against terror threats.

It was attended by the Union Home Secretary, Foreign Secretary, heads of Central Armed Police Forces and Central Police Organisations, Directors General of Police of 15 states, and ATS chiefs of all states and Union Territories. Other state DGPs and police officers at the cutting-edge level were present virtually.

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Shah said that between 2019 and 2026, the Modi government had brought back 288 fugitive criminals to India from 36 countries. He also said improved coordination among agencies had helped bust more than 40 modules of the Shahzad Bhatti Network, which was allegedly involved in cross-border smuggling of weapons, explosives and narcotics.