Radicalisation in India: "Don't book cases immediately," says home ministry

New Delhi, Aug 2: The Home Ministry in a bid to cure the radicalization disease has directed states to take a more nuanced approach and not opt for filing cases immediately.

A meeting of the Home Ministry officials with the police chiefs of various states was held to discuss ways of bringing down radicalization of youth into various terrorist groups. [ISIS threat: India to increase cyber patrolling]

Arresting a person who has been radicalized is not the first option. Instead try and counsel them and ensure that they come back into the main fold, the Home Ministry has suggested to the various states which are facing a problem of radicalization.

Identify and counsel:

The Home Ministry which discussed the issue of radicalization at length, said that the first step would be to identify the various youth who are being radicalized. Identification of youth, sympathizers and recruiters could be done on the ground level as well as on the internet. There is a need to increase cyber patrolling, the Home Ministry has also suggested.

It has also been suggested that apart from cyber patrolling to identify the youth who are being recruited or radicalized, there should also be a community outreach programme. The police must ensure that the youth should not resent the government. This can be ensured by not filing cases immediately.

Youth who are radicalized must be taken into confidence and community leaders roped in. The idea to should not be to treat them immediately as criminals, but as misguided youth who can be brought back into the manifold the Home Ministry has also suggested.

Cyber patrolling:

The Home Ministry also decided to increase the cyber patrolling programme. Currently there are a few operation launched by the cyber wing of the Intelligence Bureau. The ministry has suggested ways of increasing cyber patrolling.

Terror groups have become extremely deadly on the virtual world and almost 9 out of 10 recruitments take place there. There is a need to come up with state specific programmes to ensure that internet modules are busted. Till now the cyber patrolling was being conducted by the central intelligence agencies.

However, now it would become state specific.

The point to be noted here is that terrorists have a different plan for each state. A problem in Karnataka may not be discussed in Uttar Pradesh. A potential terror recruiter from Karnataka may quote the state's problems and it is the local police which will be in a better position to understand this.

Hence, each state needs to device its own programme and the central agencies in turn would assist them, the Home Ministry.

OneIndia News