Addressing the members of Consultative Committee attached to the Ministry of Home Affairs (MHA) in New Delhi, the Union Home Minister Sushilkumar Shinde informed that the Government has taken a series of steps to combat terrorism in the country.

He mentioned that the legal regime and mechanism for counter terrorism like amendments of Unlawful Activities (Prevention) Act, 1967 in 2008 and 2012, sharing of intelligence through close and effective coordination amongst Central and State level agencies and creation of four regional hubs (Mumbai, Hyderabad, Chennai and Kolkata) of National Security Guards (NSG) to cover the whole country has strengthened the efforts to combat terrorism.

He informed the members that the establishment of National Investigation Agency (NIA) for dealing with cases of terrorism exclusively, border security measures to guard land border through fencing along with flood lighting and border roads on the Indo-Pakistan and Indo-Bangladesh border has also improved the security situation.

Shinde further informed that the modernisation of state police forces, steps to deal with the issue of fake Indian currency notes (FICN) and NATGRID, envisaged to link further databases for creating actionable intelligence is also under establishment. He mentioned that the recent attack on the Army convoy by militants, the brutal attack by CPI (Maoists) in Chattisgarh’s Bastar district and attacks on a train at Jamui in Bihar were attacks on India’s democratic values and freedom to participate in political activities. The Home Minister said that the government is committed to make all out efforts to address the genuine grievances of deprived sections of society as the development cannot happen in an environment of terror. He said that the acts of violence against innocents will be dealt firmly.

Further explaining the situation of internal security, the Home Minister mentioned that there is an improvement in the security situation in the country during the last year. The Minister stated that the terrorist threat and challenges to internal security can be broadly categorised coming from four categories namely Jammu and Kashmir (J&K), North Eastern States, left wing extremism (LWE) and terrorism in the hinterland of the country. The Minister also informed the members about the employment generation scheme like “Udaan” and “Himayat” in the State of J&K. He said that the Central Government is continuously assisting the North Eastern states by deploying Central Armed Police Forces to assist the state police in their counterinsurgency operations against the militant outfits and augmenting and upgrading their police force by way of sanction of Indian Reserved Battalion.

The LWE is one of our gravest challenges and the strategy to be adopted to combat violence in these areas has to be a combination of security measures coupled with development. As far as terrorism in the hinterland is concerned, the country witnessed two major bomb blasts in 2013, first in Hyderabad and second in Bengaluru.

Earlier, Union Home Secretary Anil Goswami introduced the agenda and stated that there has been continuous efforts to bring about better initiatives to tackle terrorism by comprehensive rules of engagement, inclusive of legal framework, additional recruitments, intelligence network and coordination with civil administration, border management, mobility and communication system for improving the security situation and combating terrorism are other measures in this regard, he added.

The members deliberated on all aspects of combating terrorism in the country and discussed the recent incidents of security situation in the State of Jammu and Kashmir, North Eastern States, LWE, coordination amongst security agencies, rehabilitation policy and security arrangements along the borders. The Committee also appreciated the services of the forces including paramilitary forces in relief and rescue work during the recent Uttrakhand floods.