Need to be more vigilant about threats arising from radicalisation: Union home secretary

New Delhi, Dec 28 (PTI) There is a need to be more vigilant about various threats facing the country, particularly those arising from radicalisation and exploitation of vulnerable youths to carry out violent acts, Union Home Secretary Govind Mohan has said.

He made the remarks on December 27 at the conclusion of a two-day Anti-Terrorism Conference - 2025, which laid a strong emphasis on enhancing India's anti-terror capacity with a model anti-terror squad (ATS) structure designed to enhance coordination and seamless real-time information exchange, an official statement issued on Sunday said.

The conference was organised by the National Investigation Agency (NIA).

Mohan underlined the need to be more vigilant about various threats facing the country, particularly those arising from radicalisation, recruitment and exploitation of vulnerable youths to carry out violent acts.

"The newly initiated Track 2 in the Anti-Terror Conference has discussed very important issues like digital device data, and big data analytics, but most importantly, unmasking digital anonymity," he said.

The home secretary lauded the high 90+ per cent conviction rate delivered by the NIA, and said the Centre's aim was to scale conviction rates across all police forces in the country to the same level.

The conference focused on the lessons learnt during investigations, pre-emptive disruptions of terror modules, learnings in various theatres such as left-wing extremism, northeast and various hybrid threats to national security, said the statement issued by the NIA.

The event served as a platform to explore and evaluate the new security threats such as deepfakes and hybrid warfare, and also emphasised the need for digital forensics and data analysis in counter-terrorism investigations, it said.

"Other significant discussions were focused on countering financing of terrorism, maritime terrorism and illicit trafficking and evolving counter-terrorism jurisprudence," the statement said.

The conference was inaugurated on Friday by Union Home Minister Amit Shah, who directed the states to expeditiously implement a uniform Anti-Terror Squad structure to strengthen India's counter-terrorism capabilities.

He emphasised that without the availability of robust, uniform and consistent operational capacity across the country, "we cannot ensure proper use of intelligence and effective coordinated counter-actions".

The minister lauded the operational and investigative success of various agencies and state police forces in the two recent terror attack cases of Pahalgam and the Red Fort blast in Delhi.

"This is the first terrorist incident in which we punished the people who planned the act of terrorism through Operation Sindoor, and the terrorists who carried out the attack were neutralised through Operation Mahadev," Shah said, referring to the April 22 Pahalgam attack.

He termed the twin action "a strong and decisive response from the government of India, India's security forces, and the people of India to the terrorist masterminds in Pakistan".

Shah stressed the need for all central and state agencies to address international dimensions, such as cyber warfare, hybrid warfare alertness, multi-security layering and free flow of intelligence, the NIA statement said.

On the occasion, the minister paid heartfelt tributes to over 36,000 central armed forces and police personnel across the country who made the supreme sacrifice while performing their duties.

The inaugural day of the conference was attended by the heads of state police, central police organisations and central armed police forces. Over 150 delegates from police forces of several states and Union territories, and central organisations attended the two-day conference. PTI AKV DIV DIV