PRAHAAR-India\'s Groundbreaking National Counter-Terrorism Strategy: Explained

The Ministry of Home Affairs (MHA) has officially launched ‘PRAHAAR’, the nation’s first comprehensive national counter-terrorism policy and strategy, marking a significant milestone in India’s domestic security architecture. Released in late February 2026, the policy formalizes a "zero-tolerance" framework designed to transition India’s posture from reactive to a highly proactive, intelligence-led doctrine. PRAHAAR, which stands for a multi-dimensional approach to prevention and response, aims to comprehensively dismantle the terror ecosystem—targeting not just the perpetrators, but the entire logistics, finance, and safe-haven networks that support them.

The policy is structured around seven core pillars, represented by the acronym itself: Prevention through intelligence-led proactive measures; Responses that are swift, proportionate, and graded; Aggregating internal capacities for a whole-of-government synergy; Human rights and Rule of Law-based mitigation; Attenuating the conditions that enable radicalization; Aligning international efforts; and Recovery through a whole-of-society approach. This framework integrates the Multi Agency Centre (MAC) and the Joint Task Force on Intelligence (JTFI) as nodal platforms for real-time data sharing across central and state executive agencies.

A primary focus of PRAHAAR is the mitigation of "Technology-Driven Terrorism," including the misuse of drones, encrypted messaging applications, and the dark web for terror financing. The policy specifically addresses the threat of "CBRNED" materials (chemical, biological, radiological, nuclear, explosive, and digital) and the rising nexus between organized crime and terror networks. To counter these evolving threats, the doctrine mandates the modernization of law enforcement with advanced AI-driven surveillance and robotics while advocating for uniform anti-terror structures across all states and union territories.