India introduces its first anti-terror policy, PRAHAAR

New Delhi: The Ministry of Home Affairs (MHA), government of India, has released the country’s first-ever anti-terror policy, stating that “criminal hackers and nation states continue to target India through cyber-attacks.”

The policy, titled PRAHAAR, has been uploaded on the MHA website and states that India faces terrorist threats across water, land, and air, with capacities developed to safeguard critical sectors—power, railways, aviation, ports, defence, space, and atomic energy—from both state and non-state actors.

“India does not link terrorism to any specific religion, ethnicity, nationality or civilisation,” the policy underlines. However, it highlights that the country has long been affected by “sponsored terrorism” from across the border.

“India has been on the target of global terrorist groups such as Al-Qaeda and the Islamic State of Iraq and Syria (ISIS), which have been trying to incite violence in the country through sleeper cells,” it states.

“Their handlers from across the border frequently use the latest technologies, including the use of drones, for facilitating terror-related activities and attacks in Punjab and Jammu and Kashmir. Increasingly, terrorist groups are engaging organised criminal networks for logistics and recruitment to execute and facilitate terror strikes in India,” the policy says.

Home Minister Amit Shah had announced on November 7, 2024, that a National Counter Terrorism Policy and Strategy was being drafted to fight terrorism and its ecosystem. A National Policy and Action Plan for Left Wing Extremism (LWE) was introduced in 2015.

Following the Pahalgam attack on April 22, 2025, the National Investigation Agency (NIA) conducted meetings with anti-terror units of all States and apprised them of the measures aimed at preventing and pre-empting such attacks.