288 fugitives brought back since 2019: HM Amit Shah

NEW DELHI: Stating that 288 fugitives were brought back by the Modi govt from 36 countries between 2019 and 2026, home minister Amit Shah Monday launched a new extradition portal to synergise and expedite efforts to secure the custody of the other "wanted" criminals hiding abroad, to face justice in India.Delivering the inaugural address at a conference on 'PRAHAAR, counter-terrorism policy and strategy', Shah emphasised govt's "zero-tolerance" approach towards all forms and manifestations of terrorism and advocated institutionalising an automated counter-terrorism response and a result-oriented approach for each pillar and at every level of the PRAHAAR framework.PRAHAAR, unveiled in Feb this year as the country's first anti-terror doctrine, is an acronym for its seven pillars Prevention, Response, Aggregating Internal Capacities, Human Rights, Attenuating conditions for terrorism, Aligning international efforts and Recovery & resilience. It aims at criminalising all terrorist acts and starving terrorists, their financiers and supporters of funding, weapons, safe havens and cyber resources, through collaboration among agencies engaged in intelligence collection and investigation.At the conference attended by secretaries of the ministries of home affairs and external affairs, heads of central police forces, state DGPs, anti-terrorism squad heads of all states/UTs and other cutting-edge police officers the home minister called for consistent efforts to strengthen and improvise PRAHAAR strategy through continuous analysis of terror incidents and establishment of a strong and concrete mechanism for the next 10 years.The home minister asked the anti-terror set-up to focus on the percolation of tenets of PRAHAAR right down to the police station level. He called for coordination among the stakeholders to prevent any delay in action against terrorists and exhorted the states to set up dedicated teams to work in tandem with the central agencies to bring back fugitives.Citing the concerted action taken in the last few months against ISI-backed Shahbaz Bhatti network, Shah said close coordination among agencies at central and state level has resulted in busting of more than 40 modules of the network. "More than 100 FIRs were registered and 350 individuals arrested across 15 states," Shah said, adding govt recently declared the network a terrorist organisation under UAPA.Get the latest India News and Live updates. Download the TOI app.