Be ruthless, says Amit Shah to anti-terror agencies

Union home minister Amit Shah on Thursday said anti-terrorism agencies will have to adopt a ruthless approach to ensure that new terrorist organisations are not formed in the country. Addressing an anti-terrorism conference here, Shah said the entire terrorist ecosystem has to be destroyed. Tough decisions taken by the Modi government have yielded good results in handling challenges posed by crypto-currencies, hawala, terror-funding, organised crime syndicates and narco-terror links, he said. Still a lot more needs to be done, he said.

"We must work with the spirit of 'Whole of Government and Team India'," he said. He said the Model Anti-terrorism Structure should be established under the purview of NIA. The hierarchy, structure, and SoPs of investigation of all anti-terrorism agencies in all states should be made uniform for better coordination between central and state agencies.

"The task of the NIA, ATS, and STF should not be limited to investigation but they should also think out of the box and take innovative measures to counter terrorism. To deal with terrorism, the Centre and states, their agencies and inter-agency cooperation will have to think in vertical and horizontal ways."


Shah stressed that all agencies of the Centre and the state should make use of the multidimensional and artificial intelligence-based database to fight terrorism. "The total number of terror incidents in 2001 was 6,000, which has come down to 900 in 2022," he said.