India notes risk posed by CBRNE materials in first national counter-terrorism strategy
The Indian government has highlighted the danger posed by CBRNE materials in the country's first national counter-terrorism policy and strategy.
Released on Monday 23 February by the Indian Ministry of Home Affairs, the document begins by saying that the country "has been at the forefront of the ongoing fight against terrorism for several decades now".
"While the nature of threats continues to change and present new challenges, India has remained consistently opposed to terrorism in all its forms and manifestations."
The strategy laid out in the nine-page document is abbreviated to "PRAHAAR", standing for the following parts:
- Prevention of terror attacks to protect Indian citizens and interests;
- Responses, which are swift and proportionate to the threat posed;
- Aggregating internal capacities for achieving synergy in a whole-of-government approach;
- Human rights and ‘Rule of Law’ based processes for mitigation of threats;
- Attenuating the conditions enabling terrorism, including radicalisation;
- Aligning and shaping the international efforts to counter terrorism;
- Recovery and resilience through a whole-of-society approach.
CBRN materials in terrorism
The policy's threat profile notes that India has long been affected by foreign terrorism, with "Jihadi terror outfits as well as their frontal organisations, continuing to plan, coordinate, facilitate and execute terror attacks in India".
"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 adds.
"Disrupting [and] intercepting terrorist efforts to access and use CBRNE [and digital] material remains a challenge for counter terrorism agencies," the policy highlighted.
"The threat of state and non-state actors misusing drones and robotics for lethal purposes remains another area of concern, even as criminal hackers and nation states continue to target India through cyber-attacks."
