Recently, the Union Home Minister inaugurated the Anti-Terrorism Conference-2025 in New Delhi, organised by the National Investigation Agency (NIA), which culminated in the deliberations towards finalisation of India’s first comprehensive National Counter Terrorism Policy and Strategy.
Key Highlights of the Anti‑Terrorism Conference‑2025
- Impenetrable Anti-Terrorism Grid: Union Home Minister proposed building a nationwide anti-terror architecture to create an “impenetrable grid”, enhancing India’s capacity against evolving terror threats.
- Unified ATS Structure: Emphasis on a standardized Anti-Terror Squad (ATS) structure across all states and union territories to improve coordination, eliminate operational silos, and ensure rapid response.
- Intelligence Sharing Shift: Move from a “Need to Know” approach to a “Duty to Share” model among intelligence and enforcement agencies for faster threat detection and information flow.
- Digital Tools & Databases: Launch of updated NIA Crime Manual, Organised Crime Network Database, and National Database of Lost, Looted & Recovered Weapons to modernize counter-terror operations and strengthen data integration through platforms like NATGRID and NIDAAN.
- 360-Degree Strike on Organised Crime: Introduction of a holistic plan targeting organised crime networks that fund or support terrorism, leveraging shared intelligence and digital databases for preemptive action.
- Emerging Threats & Legal Measures: Focus on cyber threats, digital anonymity, deepfakes, hybrid warfare, and maritime terrorism, alongside evolving counter-terrorism laws to ensure swift legal action.
- Lessons from Counter-Terror Operations: Highlight of intelligence-led operations like Operation Sindoor and Operation Mahadev as examples of decisive action against terror networks.
- Radicalisation & Conviction Rates: Emphasis on tackling youth radicalisation and scaling high conviction rates across police forces to strengthen internal security.
- Key Initiatives Launched:
- Updated NIA Crime Manual to guide investigations and prosecutions.
- Organised Crime Network Database to track criminal-terrorist linkages.
- Lost/Looted & Recovered Weapon Database to monitor arms circulation.
About Anti-Terrorism Conference
- The Anti-Terrorism Conference is an annual national-level conference organised by the NIA under the Ministry of Home Affairs.
- Institutional Nature: It is a non-statutory, executive and operational coordination platform aimed at strengthening India’s counter-terrorism architecture.
- The conference focuses on strategic review, operational preparedness, and institutional coordination, rather than legislation or judicial functions.
- Composition and Participants: The conference brings together senior officers from central and state security agencies, including the National Investigation Agency (NIA), Intelligence Bureau (IB), State Police Forces, Anti-Terrorism Squads (ATS), Central Armed Police Forces (CAPFs), and other specialised law-enforcement agencies.
- This composition ensures inter-agency coordination and Centre–State operational convergence in counter-terrorism efforts.
- Objectives and Governance Rationale:
- To assess evolving terrorism threats, including cross-border terrorism, organised crime–terror nexus, cyber-enabled radicalisation, and terror financing networks.
- To strengthen information-sharing, investigative capacity, and operational coordination across central and state agencies.
- It reinforces India’s zero-tolerance approach to terrorism, with emphasis on prevention, disruption, and prosecution, rather than reactive responses.
- Thematic Focus and Operational Orientation: The conference focuses on creating a unified national counter-terrorism grid by reducing institutional silos and jurisdictional gaps.
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About India’s First Anti-Terror Policy
The 2025 policy is working in the direction of the culmination of nearly two decades of institutional learning, designed to shield India’s progress as one of the world’s largest economies:
- Historical Precedents: Building on the post-26/11 reforms that established the NIA and NATGRID, the finalising doctrine is working to formalize the “Zero-Tolerance” stance as a systemic requirement.
- Unified Doctrine: As per the Ministry of Home Affairs, the policy would consolidate central agencies and state police into a cohesive “Team India” to counter the hybrid format of terrorism, where digital and physical threats are inextricably linked.
Major Threats that would be on Focus by the Policy
The policy must explicitly need to identify and target four “New-Age Terror Threats”:
- Digital Radicalisation: Focus on “white-collar radicalisation”, where educated professionals are indoctrinated through foreign-funded online modules, encrypted platforms, and transnational propaganda networks.
- Open Border Vulnerabilities: Addresses exploitation of porous corridors such as the India–Nepal–Bihar route, used by Khalistani and other insurgent groups operating with foreign passports and forged identities.
- Aadhaar and Document Spoofing: Targets the creation of “ghost identities”, where sleeper cells use forged Aadhaar cards and documents to seamlessly blend into urban and semi-urban populations.
- Information Warfare: Counters the use of social media platforms to spread disinformation, incite communal disharmony, and create social polarisation as a precursor to terrorist mobilisation.
Why No Anti-Terror Policy till now in India?
Historically, India relied on ad-hoc legislative measures rather than a codified national doctrine.
- Federal Friction (7th Schedule): Under the Constitution, “Police” and “Public Order” are State subjects. States often perceived a central policy as an “overreach” by the Union.
- Intelligence Silos: A “Need to Know” culture dominated the IB, RAW, and State ATS, preventing the creation of a Unified Intelligence Architecture.
- Reactive vs. Proactive: Legislation like UAPA (1967) or POTA (2002) was largely punitive (post-event), whereas a “policy” is preventative (pre-event).
- Definitional Ambiguity: Per the Global Terrorism Index (GTI), India struggled to balance definitions between “insurgency,” “militancy,” and “terrorism,” leading to fragmented legal responses.
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Need for a National Counter-Terror Policy
- Rise of Hybrid Terrorism: Terror groups increasingly combine local modules with high-end technologies such as drones, encrypted applications, and cyber tools, bypassing traditional State and jurisdictional boundaries, as seen in incidents like the Pahalgam attack (April 2025).
- Narco-Terror Nexus: As per the MHA Annual Report (2024–25), nearly 30% of terror financing in border States is now linked to international drug cartels, strengthening the organised crime–terrorism ecosystem.
- Digital and White-Collar Radicalisation: Educated youth are being targeted through foreign-funded online platforms, encrypted networks, and professional-led modules, necessitating advanced Cyber-Human Intelligence (CHINT) capabilities.
- Changing Terrorism Landscape (GTI 2025): India ranks 14th globally, indicating a decline in mass-casualty urban attacks but a rise in hybrid threats such as drone attacks, cyber recruitment, and transnational networks.
- Post-26/11 Security Gains with Structural Gaps: Reforms like the NIA, NATGRID, and intelligence-led operations have reduced major urban strikes, particularly in Jammu & Kashmir, yet systemic weaknesses persist.
- Low Conviction Rates under UAPA: Conviction rates remain around 3%, highlighting deficiencies in investigation quality, forensic capacity, and prosecution, which undermine deterrence.
- Need for Strategic Shift: These trends necessitate a transition from reactive, incident-driven responses to a preventive, intelligence-led, and technology-enabled national counter-terror doctrine, supported by integrated databases, enhanced border monitoring, and predictive tools such as a National Memory Bank.
| India’s Contemporary Counter-Terrorism Framework |
| Dimension |
Key Components |
Core Features / Significance |
| Legal Framework |
Unlawful Activities (Prevention) Act, 1967 |
- Enables designation of individuals and organisations as terrorists, asset attachment and forfeiture, and extended investigation period (up to 180 days) to dismantle complex terror networks.
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| National Investigation Agency Act, 2008 |
- Grants the NIA nationwide jurisdiction to investigate terror offences without prior State consent, ensuring swift federal intervention in high-impact cases.
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| National Security Act, 1980 |
- Provides for preventive detention to neutralise threats to national security and public order, particularly where prosecution is not immediately feasible.
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| Bharatiya Nyaya Sanhita, 2024 (Section 113) |
- Introduces a modernised definition of “terrorist act”, bridging gaps between local policing, intelligence inputs, and central investigations.
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| Institutional Architecture |
National Investigation Agency (NIA) |
- Serves as the principal federal counter-terror prosecution agency, supported by specialised investigation units and dedicated special courts under UAPA.
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| National Intelligence Grid (NATGRID) |
- A technology-driven intelligence fusion platform integrating banking, travel, telecom, and immigration databases to detect terror financing and sleeper networks.
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| Specialised Units (NSG & State ATS) |
- Act as the primary tactical response forces for urban terror incidents, hostage rescue, and high-risk counter-terror operations.
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| National Security Council Secretariat (NSCS) |
- Headed by the National Security Adviser (NSA), it ensures whole-of-government coordination across defence, intelligence, internal security, and diplomacy.
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| Strategic Doctrine |
Strategic Autonomy in Response |
- Treats terror attacks as serious national security violations, allowing India flexibility in timing, scale, and nature of response.
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| Sponsor Accountability |
- Eliminates distinction between terror groups and their state sponsors, holding both equally responsible through diplomatic and strategic measures.
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| Punitive Deterrence |
- Shifts from deterrence by denial to deterrence by punishment, imposing credible and unacceptable costs to prevent future attacks.
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| Net Security Approach |
- Frames counter-terror actions as defence of global security norms, strengthening India’s position in multilateral forums rather than bilateral confrontation alone.
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Constitutional, Legal, and Judicial Anchoring of the Anti-Terror Framework
- Constitutional Mandate: Under Article 355, the Union bears the duty to protect states against “internal disturbance.”
- While “Police” is a State subject (Seventh Schedule), the policy promotes Cooperative Federalism through a Common ATS Structure, aiming for operational uniformity.
- Judicial Alignment: The policy integrates with the Bharatiya Nyaya Sanhita (BNS), specifically Section 113, which provides a modernized definition of “terrorist act.”
- It seeks to align with the K.S. Puttaswamy (Privacy) judgment by ensuring data processed through NATGRID and NIDAAN follows strict investigative safeguards.
- Trial of Proclaimed Offenders in Absence: As per official briefings, Section 356 of the Bharatiya Nagarik Suraksha Sanhita (BNSS) allows for the trial of proclaimed offenders in their absence.
- This measure is projected to compel fugitives to return, provided it remains subject to conformity with principles of natural justice and international legal obligations.
Way Forward
- Incentivised Federalism: The Union Government can introduce conditional internal security grants to incentivise States to adopt the updated NIA Crime Manual and implement uniform ATS structures, ensuring nationwide operational consistency without undermining federal autonomy.
- Strengthened Institutional Coordination: Leveraging existing cooperative platforms such as the Inter-State Council and the National Conference of Chief Secretaries (NCCS) can help resolve data-sharing frictions, clarify jurisdictional boundaries, and build trust between central agencies and State governments.
- Integrated Soft-Power and Community-Centric Strategy: Decisive hard-power counter-terror operations must be complemented by community policing, capacity-building of frontline personnel, and specialised training to detect early digital radicalisation signals, particularly in online spaces and vulnerable urban ecosystems.
Conclusion
The Anti-Terrorism Conference-2025 and the inaugural National Counter-Terrorism Policy transition India from reactive policing to a proactive, technology-led doctrine. By institutionalizing a unified ATS structure and the “Duty to Share” intelligence model, the framework creates an impenetrable security grid against hybrid threats. This unified approach secures India’s strategic sovereignty, providing the stability essential for Viksit Bharat 2047.
31 Dec 2025
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