The Ministry of Home Affairs (MHA) National Counter-Terrorism Policy and Strategy PRAHAAR policy document provides clear, concise direction for India’s counter-terrorism campaign. It is a definite step forward in eliminating the threat posed by the amorphous, multi-vector nature of terrorism. It also epitomises the challenges of drafting a Counter-Terrorism policy for a vast, socio-culturally diverse country like India.

PRAHAAR in the Backdrop of Operation Sindoor

India has adopted a new, more assertive approach in fighting terrorism in recent years, which was on full display in the first burst of Operation Sindoor in May 2026, when several terror infrastructure sites across Pakistan and Pakistan-Occupied Jammu and Kashmir (PoJK) were targeted and taken out by Indian armed forces using precision weapons. The punitive strikes following the Pahalgam terror attacks sent a hard-hitting message to the Pakistani establishment and its terror proxies that India would employ both kinetic and non-kinetic actions to deliver a decisive blow to the recalcitrant neighbour. Subsequently, New Delhi launched a major international diplomatic offensive, dispatching seven all-party delegations to 33 countries to expose Pakistan globally as a state sponsor of terrorism and to block Islamabad’s traditional strategy of playing the victim card or turning the Kashmir dispute into a multilateral issue.[i]

PRAHAAR: ‘Doctrinal Consolidation’ of CT Policy

On 23 February 2026, the Ministry of Home Affairs (MHA) unveiled ‘PRAHAAR’ as India’s first comprehensive National Counter Terrorism Policy and Strategy, comprising a ‘whole of government’ and ‘whole of society’ approach to combat the threat of terrorism.[ii] Several observers have hailed ‘PRAHAAR’ as marking the doctrinal consolidation of hitherto mostly decentralised Counter-Terrorism (CT) approaches, shaped by geo-spatially diverse and socio-culturally complex challenges, through years of evolving legislation, executive practices and gradual institutional coordination.[iii]

In the Rajya Sabha, Minister of State for Home Affairs Nityanand Rai said PRAHAAR marked a formal shift from the country’s erstwhile reactive security stance to a proactive doctrine.[iv] As the first of its kind, the seven-page document draws the broad contours of India’s new national policy and strategic approaches, and brings together the diverse strands of CT initiatives developed over the decades across several vectors.

In formulating this policy document, the Indian government has taken cognisance of the fact that ‘the nature of (terrorism-related) threats continues to change and present new challenges’.[v] In fact, terrorism remains an amorphous threat that, like any intractable pathogen or virus, mutates its form and composition and adapts to the multi-dimensional complexities of India’s vast regional and socio-cultural landscape. The document correctly recognises that any rigidly detailed strategic approach would not provide the tactical freedom needed to combat terrorism’s volatile character effectively. Thus, the introductory paragraph of the policy paper also asserts that India consistently opposes terrorism in all its forms and manifestations, particularly state-sponsored terrorism.

Although the document does not provide its own definition of terrorism, it implicitly refers to the Unlawful Activities (Prevention) Act (UAPA) of 1967 as ‘the principal legal regime to deal with terrorism in India’.[vi] By doing so, the UAPA becomes its primary legal reference, which defines a terrorist under Article 15 as

whoever does any act with intent to threaten or likely to threaten the unity, integrity, security, [economic security,] or sovereignty of India or with intent to strike terror or likely to strike terror in the people or any section of the people in India or in any foreign country.[vii]

whoever does any act with intent to threaten or likely to threaten the unity, integrity, security, [economic security,] or sovereignty of India or with intent to strike terror or likely to strike terror in the people or any section of the people in India or in any foreign country.[vii]

While acknowledging that ‘ungoverned spaces’ have grown in India’s immediate neighbourhood over time, which often provide safe havens to terrorist organisations, the document points out that ‘a few countries in the region have used terrorism as an instrument of State Policy’.[viii] The PRAHAAR policy paper also reiterates India’s long-held principle that ‘India does not link terrorism to any specific religion, ethnicity, nationality or civilisation’.

Policy of Eight Point Action Plan against Terrorism

The paper reiterates India’s longstanding policy of ‘zero tolerance against terrorism’[ix] and its Eight-Point Action Plan for Combating Terrorism globally, as enunciated by External Affairs Minister S. Jaishankar at the UNSC in 2021:

Summon the political will: don’t justify terrorism, don’t glorify terrorists.

No double standards: Terrorists are terrorists; distinctions (such as “good” or “bad”) are made only at our own peril.

Do not place blocks and holds........

© IDSA