In the last three years, India has declared two organisations as 'Terrorist Organisations' which have been banned, informed Minister of State for Home Affairs Nityanand Rai in Rajya Sabha on Wednesday.
Kartikey Sharma, Member of Parliament in Rajya Sabha asked for the details of banned organisations, which involve terrorism of any type in the country in the last three years.
MoS Rai replied that two organisations have been declared as 'Terrorist Organisation' under the provisions of the Unlawful Activities (Prevention) Act, 1967 since 2019: Tahreek-ul-Mujahideen (TuM) and all its manifestations, Jamat-ul-Mujahideen Bangladesh or Jamat-ul-Mujahideen India or Jamat-ul-Mujahideen Hindustan and all its manifestations.
He further said that besides, seven organisations based in the hinterland and Jammu-Kashmir viz - Student Islamic Movement of India (SIMI), Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE), Islamic Research Foundation (IRF), Jamaat-e-Islami (JeI), Jammu and Kashmir, Jammu and Kashmir Liberation Front (Y), Sikh for Justice and the Popular Front of India have also been proscribed as Unlawful Associations for involvement in various unlawful/terror-related activities.
On being asked whether any State is turning into a hotspot of terrorist activities, he replied that the problem of terrorism in India is largely sponsored from across the border. The global terrorist groups and some foreign agencies inimical to India have been making efforts to radicalise people using religion and allure people towards terrorism through the use of social media platforms, internet etc.
The Minister said the government has a zero-tolerance policy to tackle terrorism. Close and effective coordination mechanisms exist between intelligence and security agencies at the Centre and State levels. The Multi Agency Centre (MAC) has been strengthened and re-organised to enable it to function on a 24x7 basis for real-time collection and sharing of intelligence amongst intelligence agencies and States, he said.
States have raised special forces to deal with terror incidents and Central Armed Police Forces (CAPF) and National Security Guards (NSG) have also been stationed at different locations of the country to assist the States in dealing with such incidents, he added.
Rai said the agencies keep a continuous watch on all such elements including those in vulnerable areas and organisations involved in the radicalisation of a particular section of society, whose activities have a bearing on law and order situation and internal security of the country.
Responding to the question on the steps taken to curb the funding for terrorist activities in the country, Rai said that in order to curb the menace of terror funding, the Unlawful Activities (Prevention) Act, 1967 has been strengthened, inter-alia, by criminalizing the production or smuggling or circulation of Fake Indian Currency Notes as a terrorist act and enlarging the definition of proceeds of terrorism to include any property intended to be used for terrorism.
Besides, a Countering Financing of Terrorism Cell (CFT Cell) has been constituted in the Ministry of Home Affairs for coordination on combating of terror funding. A Terror Funding and Fake Currency Cell has also been constituted in the National Investigation Agency to conduct focused investigations into terror funding and fake currency cases.
Recently, India has organised the 3rd 'No Money For Terror' Ministerial Conference in New Delhi in order to bring the international community on a common platform and consensus building for countering terrorism financing.
(With inputs from ANI)
