Prahaar: What’s 7-pillar strategy outlined by counter-terrorism policy?

India has put out its first formally articulated national counter-terrorism policy and strategy, a document that lays out not just the country's stated approach to fighting terror but also acknowledges the gaps that remain.

Titled 'PRAHAAR' — meaning strike — the policy, released by the Ministry of Home Affairs (MHA), is built around seven pillars and draws on decades of experience dealing with cross-border and homegrown terrorism.

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At its core, the document is a statement of India's long-held position that terrorism has no justification, regardless of who commits it or why. "India does not link terrorism to any specific religion, ethnicity, nationality or civilisation," it says, adding that the country has "always denounced terrorism and its use by any actor for achieving any stated or unstated ends, unambiguously and unequivocally." It is this, the document says, that forms the basis of India's policy of 'zero tolerance' against terrorism.

What is PRAHAAR?

As per the MHA, the counter-terrorism strategy of India, ‘PRAHAAR’, flows from these ideals and is predicated on the following:

P – Prevention of terror attacks to protect Indian citizens and interests;

R – Responses, which are swift and proportionate to the threat posed;

A – Aggregating internal capacities for achieving synergy in a whole-of-government approach;

H – Human rights and ‘Rule of Law’ based processes for mitigation of threats;

A – Attenuating the conditions enabling terrorism, including radicalization;

A – Aligning and shaping the international efforts to counter terrorism;

R – Recovery and resilience through a whole-of-society approach.

Intelligence first

The strategy places intelligence gathering at the centre of prevention. The Multi-Agency Centre (MAC) and the Joint Task Force on Intelligence (JTFI) under the Intelligence Bureau are described as the nodal platforms for real-time sharing of counter-terrorism inputs. Law enforcement agencies are tasked with proactively disrupting online propaganda, recruitment networks and the financial pipelines that sustain terror operations — what the document calls "over ground worker modules".

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Threats are evolving, and the document makes that plain. It flags the use of drones to push weapons across the border into Punjab and Jammu and Kashmir, the growing nexus between terrorist groups and organised crime, and the misuse of "encryption, dark web, crypto wallets" that allow operatives to "operate anonymously".

Disrupting terrorist access to chemical, biological, radiological, nuclear and explosive material, it notes, "remains a challenge" — a rare admission of limitation in an otherwise declaratory document.

On response, the policy designates local police as the first responder to any attack, with the National Security Guard (NSG) stepping in for major incidents. The National Investigation Agency (NIA), along with state police agencies, handles investigations. The document points to "high prosecution rates" as a deterrent, though it also concedes in the section on the way forward that legal experts need to be embedded at every stage of investigation — "right from registration of FIR to its culmination in prosecution" — suggesting this has not always been the practice.

Radicalisation gets significant attention

The strategy calls for community leaders, religious figures and NGOs to be engaged to "spread awareness about the adverse consequences of radicalisation". Prison officials are specifically cautioned to prevent "acts of radicalisation of vulnerable inmates by hard core inmates". More broadly, the document ties counter-terrorism to economic policy, arguing that poverty and unemployment create conditions that "inimical elements" exploit, and that access to quality education, housing and jobs must be promoted in vulnerable communities.

Internationally, India has signed mutual legal assistance treaties, extradition arrangements and memoranda of understanding with several countries, and the document says these have resulted in the "disruption and indictment of many terrorist and radical entities" as well as the deportation of wanted fugitives. India also says it will continue working for a "comprehensive framework on international terrorism" at the United Nations — a reference to the long-stalled Comprehensive Convention on International Terrorism, which India has championed for decades.

The document ends with candour. "There remains a scope for further cooperation and collaboration among various agencies for intelligence collection and investigation," it says, noting that counter-terrorism laws need to be amended "from time to time" and that state anti-terror units need greater uniformity in structure, resources and training. It also acknowledges that terrorist groups based abroad are increasingly using local outfits for terrain knowledge and logistics — a pattern visible in recent attacks in Jammu and Kashmir. "National actions, coupled with international and regional cooperation," the document says, "are key elements in addressing the trans-national terrorism challenge."

Criminalise all terrorist acts

“India remains committed to international cooperation and collaboration. To build consensus on the understanding of terrorism and the rights of victims of terrorism, India will continue to work for a comprehensive framework on international terrorism while pursuing its counter-terrorism policy and strategy 'Prahaar', which aims to criminalise all terrorist acts and deny access to funds, weapons and safe havens to the terrorists, their financiers and supporters.

“India would continue its efforts together with the international community, to counter the global challenge of misuse of Information and Communications Technology (ICT) for terrorist purposes. Besides, investment in technology and partnerships with private enterprise have been included to mitigate futuristic terror threats,” the MHA document concluded.