Opinion | PRAHAAR Doctrine: Bharat’s Shift From Reaction To Relentless Deterrence

The strategy adopts a comprehensive 360-degree approach. It not only targets terrorists and their networks but also focuses on dismantling their support infrastructure

Recently, Bharat introduced its first-ever National Counter-Terrorism Policy and Strategy, marking a significant evolution in its security doctrine. The new framework reflects a decisive shift towards a zero-tolerance approach against terrorism in all its forms. Unlike earlier reactive measures, the policy emphasises proactive prevention, rapid response, and strong punitive action against perpetrators.

Our counter-terrorism strategy is reliant on seven pillars of PRAHAAR—Prevention, Response, Aggregating, Human Rights and Rule of Law approach to deal with terrorists, Attenuating the conditions which enable terrorism, Aligning and shaping international efforts to counter-terrorism, and Recovery and resilience through a whole-of-government approach. The strategy aimed to strike not only at the terror modules but also at their support infrastructure of propaganda, communication, and funding. The new doctrine sets out to follow a proactive approach to deal with jihadist terror with an intelligence-guided base and prevent the weaponisation of e-commerce as well as social media sites for the purpose of disseminating propaganda. This also focuses on securing the energy and critical infrastructure of the country from direct or cyberattack. It also aimed to increase the capacity of the local police, by identifying it as the first responder to any terror attack and to improve the coordination between the local, state, and central agencies in the wake of a terror attack. Additionally, it underlines international cooperation, legal reforms, and community engagement to counter radicalisation. By integrating security, diplomatic, economic, and social measures, the strategy aims to build a resilient national security architecture capable of preventing, deterring, and effectively responding to emerging terrorist threats. And also spotlights enhancing public-private partnerships to fight against terrorism and its changing nature.

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Importantly, the strategy adopts a comprehensive 360-degree approach. It not only targets terrorists and their networks but also focuses on dismantling their support infrastructure, including financing channels, recruitment pipelines, propaganda mechanisms, and cross-border linkages. The policy strengthens intelligence coordination among central and state agencies, enhances the use of advanced technology for surveillance and cyber monitoring, and promotes capacity-building of security forces.

The strategy has come at such an important time when the nature of warfare seems to be changing. The emergence of Fifth Generation Warfare has enabled the security apparatus to change the course of countermeasures to efficiently deal with anti-national activities. The new warfare theatre seems not to be limited only till the borders of a nation; rather, it has been very much there in civil society, as it has dimmed the lines of war and peace times. The blend of propaganda and social engineering tactics to ferment unrest in a civic group is a new phenomenon that has been popping up due to the rise of free markets, globalisation, and rapid change of technologies. The terrorist groups have also adapted themselves to this new, changing environment. Thus, there seems to be a need to deal with terrorism in new ways. The new security doctrine should be more elastic in nature in proportion to the elasticity of the new war tactics being used by terrorists.

Bharat has a unique geopolitical condition as it has a neighbour like Pakistan in its west, which is clear in its approach to sponsoring terror against Bharat. Pakistan, since its foundation, is an “oppositional state" to Bharat as it has a weak foundation and an incomplete state formation process, thus leaving no logic for its survival but to oppose Bharat as a country. Pakistan understands it very well that it cannot defeat Bharat in a conventional war, so it opts for a non-conventional way of fighting. Its use of Islamic Jihad is the latest model of a sophisticated asymmetric warfare campaign, which has been in continuation, deliberately, since the post-1971 period. In order to confront a strong adversary like Bharat, Pakistan has relied on utilising religiously motivated jihadist non-state actors as strategic tools and thus, shaping its strategic environment without the costs and risks of direct combat and helping promote internal cohesion to compensate for Pakistan’s weak domestic political foundations. Brigadier SK Malik of the Pakistan army wrote “The Quranic Concept of War", whose foreword was written by the former military dictator of Pakistan General Zia Ul Haq, provided the theological and legal justification for constant jihad and terror as a strategic weapon. Thus, there has been a full-fledged justification for waging Jihad by the state itself!

Hence, it should be a well-understood fact that the use of jihad constituted the central pillar of Pakistan’s Grand Strategy. Grand strategy is a state’s theory of how to produce national security. This also identifies the goal that a state sought to achieve during the period of its existence and also specifies the military instruments that should be used to achieve it. Thus, in the long term, Pakistan is not going to abandon its strategy of using Jihad against Bharat. So, in light of this, having a comprehensive counter-terrorism policy and strategy is a meta imperative for Bharat.

With the emergence of Osama bin Laden on the global stage, he shifted his focus towards recruiting and mobilising indigenous operatives within the United States to carry out extremist Islamist missions against the country itself. With an American passport, a Bin Laden operative could move freely anywhere in the world without any question or detection as a member of a terror organisation. Following the bombings of US embassies in Kenya and Tanzania, the indictment filed against Laden and his compatriots notes that he “made efforts to recruit United States citizens… in order to utilise the American citizens for travel throughout the western world to deliver messages and engage in financial transactions for the benefit of Al Qaeda and its affiliated groups and to carry out operations". The recent module of doctors being busted by our security apparatus around NCR also draws parallels to the menace of homegrown white-collar terrorism, which is being utilised by a dreaded terrorist like Osama bin Laden. Thus, containment of sleeper cells of terror organisations is an important challenge being addressed by this policy.

The strategy also intends to attenuate the conditions responsible for terrorism. One of the most critical ways of jihadi radicalisation is through teachings and lectures by radicalised jihadi preachers. The 9/11 attack on the USA is not an isolated event; rather, it was a manifestation of the jihadi preachings happening in the U.S. since the 1980s. The first Conference of Jihad was held at the Al Farooq mosque on Atlantic Avenue in Brooklyn in 1988. In a speech recorded on videotape, Sheikh Abdullah Azzam, who is recognised as a mentor to Bin Laden, was instructing his audience to carry out Jihad no matter where they were, even in America. Large-scale radicalisation progressively culminated in the events of 9/11. The United States had already witnessed a long history of jihadist preaching and extremist activity during the latter half of the twentieth century, which contributed to the framing of an environment in which such attacks could take shape. Thus, curbing jihadi radicalisation should be an integrated part of a comprehensive counter-terrorism policy. Youssef Al Otaiba, Ambassador of the United Arab Emirates to the US, has called Islamic extremism a “transnational cancer" and urged for fighting terrorism not only with guns and bullets on the battlefield but also on an ideological and financial level.

The events of 9/11 marked a decisive inflection point in global strategic thinking. Until then, counter-terrorism measures were largely centred on kinetic responses. However, in the aftermath of 9/11, greater emphasis was placed on disrupting terror financing networks and dismantling the financial infrastructure that sustains extremist operations.

Since then, terror funding mechanisms have evolved significantly, adapting to technological advancements and globalisation. A recent example is the procurement of materials, such as aluminium powder, through e-commerce platforms, linked to the 2019 Pulwama terror attack. These developments underscore the need for counter-terrorism frameworks to remain vigilant and adaptive, keeping pace with emerging technologies and evolving methods of logistical and financial support used by terrorist networks.

In recent decades, a new theatre of warfare has emerged alongside the rapid evolution of technology. Operations are no longer conducted solely through conventional kinetic means; increasingly, non-kinetic tools are being deployed to achieve strategic objectives. These include the exploitation of social media platforms to disseminate misinformation and disinformation, which can serve the propaganda goals of terrorist organisations and advance their nefarious designs. The battlefield has increasingly shifted to the civilian domain, described as the “0.5 front" by our current National Security Adviser, Ajit Doval. This concept underscores the idea that modern conflicts extend beyond traditional military engagements into society itself.

To gain a strategic edge in contemporary warfare, it is essential to recognise that security is no longer solely the responsibility of the state. Civil society must also view it as a shared responsibility in order to effectively confront both kinetic and non-kinetic challenges of the modern era. Thus, the emphasis of the current strategy on viewing terrorism through a comprehensive lens and addressing it through a whole-of-society approach is a commendable step toward strengthening modern strategic preparedness for a country like Bharat.

Divyansh Kala is an author and columnist based in Delhi, frequently writing on issues related to National Security and Policy. Views expressed in the above piece are personal and solely those of the author. They do not necessarily reflect News18’s views.

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