Terror’s changing face, India’s counter-terror strategy

Why in news?

25 years since the 9/11 attacks were completed recently. Also, at the 18th BRICS Summit in New Delhi, an exclusive paragraph on the Pahalgam terror attack was included in the Delhi Declaration, clearly underscoring the growing global consensus on combating terrorism.

UPSC Relevance

Mains, GS3, Internal Security 

Role of External State and Non-state Actors in creating challenges to Internal Security

Role of Media and Social Networking Sites in Internal Security Challenges

Linkages of Organised Crime with Terrorism.

Changing Trends in Global Terrorism

Over the past 25 years since 9/11, the global security landscape, including that of India, has changed irreversibly. The forms of terrorism have evolved, the instruments used to perpetrate terror have changed, and so too have the strategies adopted by countries around the world to counter terrorism.

• Shift in Organisational Structure: Large terror organisations operating under centralised, ruthless leadership (such as Osama bin Laden or Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi) are declining. They are giving way to smaller, highly autonomous entities and lone-wolf attacks.
  • Lone-wolf actors carried out 93% of fatal terrorist attacks in Western nations over the past five years, such as the December 2025 family-based terror attack at Bondi Beach in Sydney.
  • Coimbatore terrorist lone attack in 2022 –  A self-radicalised ISIS sympathiser died during an attempted car bomb explosion outside a temple. 
• Technological Escalation: Terror groups as well as nation-states are increasingly leveraging advanced technologies, including drones, cyber capabilities, and artificial intelligence, to execute terror operations.
  • Non-state dissident factions in South America, including FARC splinter groups and the ELN in Colombia, executed over 70 deliberate weaponised drone attacks between 2024 and 2025 as a cheaper yet highly impactful asymmetric method.
  • Online Radicalisation & Generative AI Exploitation: Extremist entities increasingly use generative AI tools, deepfakes, darknet communication, and encrypted platforms to accelerate recruitment pipelines, particularly targeting youth through gaming platforms and social media.
    • European and North American intelligence agencies reported that minors under 18 made up 42% of all terrorism investigations in 2025—a threefold increase since 2021—driven by hyper-personalised, short-form online propaganda.
  • Misuse of Emerging Financial Technologies like cryptocurrency: Militant networks have moved away from traditional informal value-transfer systems (Hawala) toward borderless financial instruments to fund operational logistics, arms acquisition, and propaganda distribution anonymously.
• Evolution of Strategic Stance: Nations have shifted from traditional passive/reactive strategies toward direct, proactive, and retaliatory counter-terror doctrines.
• Shift to Borderland Operations & Conflict Zones: Terrorist operations are becoming geographically concentrated along vulnerable international borders and fragile state frontiers.
  •  Over 76% of all global terror attacks now occur within 100 kilometres of international borders, as seen in the Central Sahel tri-border area, the Lake Chad Basin, and the Afghanistan-Pakistan border regions.
• Rise of Politically & Ideologically Diverse Extremism: Beyond traditional Islamist-militant extremism, violent politically motivated attacks (including far-right, far-left, and anti-government extremism) have seen a notable global resurgence.
  • In the United States, the FBI disrupted a multi-location bombing plot targeted for New Year’s Eve in Los Angeles, planned by the Turtle Island Liberation Front, a far-left, anti-government extremist group.

India’s Current Steps & Shift in Strategy

• Proactive Deterrence: India has shifted from defensive restraint to proactive engagement. It has declared that cross-border terrorism emanating from Pakistan will be treated as an “act of war,” making Pakistan pay a direct and heavy price for any attack.
• Pre-emptive Military Action: Demonstrating an assertive approach through operations such as cross-border surgical strikes (Uri, 2016), aerial strikes (Balakot, 2019), and punitive operations aimed at destroying military assets and terror launchpads (Operation Sindoor).
• Policy Framework (“PRAHAAR”): India unveiled ‘PRAHAAR’ on February 23, 2026—its first comprehensive National Counter-Terrorism Policy and Strategy. It provides a coordinated “whole-of-government” and “whole-of-society” framework to prevent terrorist activities and counter radicalisation.
• Global Diplomatic Push: Actively building international consensus against terrorism by challenging double standards at multilateral forums like the Shanghai Cooperation Organisation (SCO) and BRICS (e.g., getting the Pahalgam attack explicitly cited in the Delhi Declaration).

Author’s Four-Pronged Strategy

1. Target Remnants: Continuously hunt down and eliminate the remaining remnants of terror networks operating within the country, with a focused effort in Kashmir.
2. Pre-emptive Cross-LoC Actions: Utilise an extensive intelligence network to execute pre-emptive military strikes against terror infrastructure and launchpads being built up across the Line of Control (LoC).
3. Nationwide De-radicalisation: Implement an exhaustive de-radicalisation program across India that motivates youth to enter the mainstream while making involvement in or support for terror organisations prohibitively costly and unattractive.
4. Disrupt Terror Financing: Take all necessary bilateral and multilateral measures to choke terror funding channels in close coordination with friendly foreign nations.

Practice Question:

​Analysing the shift towards decentralised, technology-driven, and lone-wolf operations in global terrorism, discuss the security challenges posed to India and suggest a comprehensive counter-terrorism framework to mitigate these threats. (15 marks)