The Union Ministry of Home Affairs (MHA) quietly unveiled India’s maiden national counter-terrorism policy on February 23, christened ‘PRAHAAR’ (Strike), marking a doctrinal leap from episodic responses to a unified, multi-domain strategy against evolving threats.

Drafted under Home Minister Amit Shah — building on his November 2024 announcement — the eight-page document, now public on the MHA website, codifies zero-tolerance while explicitly rejecting any linkage of terrorism to religion, ethnicity or civilisation. It confronts cross-border “Jihadi” networks, ISIS-Al Qaeda sleeper cells, drone incursions in Punjab and Jammu & Kashmir, cyber strikes by state and non-state actors, and the menacing convergence of terror with organised crime, dark-web financing and CBRNED risks.

At its core lie seven pillars: prevention through intelligence-led action, swift proportionate response, capacity-building, human-rights-compliant operations, tackling radicalisation via community leaders and NGOs, international cooperation, and societal resilience. The policy strengthens the Multi-Agency Centre and Joint Task Force on Intelligence, empowers the NIA as lead investigator, mandates uniform state-level structures and shields critical infrastructure from power grids to atomic installations.

Security analysts hail the move as institutionalising proactive architecture against hybrid warfare that outpaced earlier frameworks like the 2015 LWE plan. Post-Pahalgam coordination already reflects the shift. While operational guidelines and possible NIA-IB integration are awaited, PRAHAAR offers a federal template for synergy, blending hard power with soft deradicalisation in an era of borderless digital threats.