Ans :- In the wake of the recent Pahalgam terror attack, India needs to reflect and introspect about management of terrorism and formulate a policy for this menace.
Terrorism : A grave challenge to National Security —
1. Loss of lives : Terror attacks often lead to panic among people and loss of lives.
2. Challenge to economic security:- Terror attacks often cause loss of property and businesses, as the Pahalgam attack would disturb the tourism industry
3. Promoting Organized crimes:- Organized crimes like money laundering and arms smuggling are interconnected to terrorism as they are used by non-state actors to conduct terror attacks.
Possible steps to tackle the menace of terrorism :-
1. Legal and investigative strengthening :- India needs to strengthen laws like UAPA 1967 and NIA so that terrorism can be tackled effectively. The Law Commission also recommended a special law to deal with terrorism.
2. Specialized counterterrorism terror mechanism: — India needs to strengthen its anti-terror mechanism and empower agencies designated for the same. A special framework needs to be formulated to deal with this menace.
3. Political consensus :-
Political parties must arrive at a common conclusion on the need for a planned strategy to deal with terrorism
4. Border and Maritime security : — Most of the terrorists involved in attacks enter India either through the land border or the maritime border. So, to deal with terrorism, India needs to strengthen its border and maritime security. Deploying a Comprehensive Integrated Border Management System with sensors and drones would be a great step towards national security.
5. Community-based counter radicalisation :- Radicalization has emerged as a new challenge to deal with terrorism. India needs to focus on initiatives like Operation Sadbhavna and village Defense Guards to engage and secure the vulnerable population.
6. Good governance and socio-economic development :- it would encourage terror groups to project terrorism as a good means to people. It would help in the radicalization of young people.
7. Capacity Building : — It should include intelligence gathering machinery, security agencies, civil administration and society at large.
8. Global and Bilateral cooperation :- As cross-border terrorism is an international challenge to humanity. It’s cross-border nature requires global and multi-state involvement. India’s active participation in the UN, FATF and the security dialogue of Quad could be helpful in this direction.
To deal with the menace of terrorism, a multipronged strategy is needed which focuses on all stakeholders so that vulnerable people do not fall prey to propaganda.