Pre-empt threats before they escalate: Amit Shah to security agencies
Union Home Minister Amit Shah on Tuesday (August 25, 2026) said India's security policy must account for emerging global challenges, including geopolitical instability, energy and resource insecurity, supply chain disruptions, rising radicalisation and cyber misinformation campaigns. He urged security agencies to anticipate threats before they turn into major crises.
Addressing the valedictory session of the Intelligence Bureau's National Security Strategy Conference (NSSC) in New Delhi, Mr. Shah said he had visited all land-border States over the past eight months and shared with them a document outlining a four-pronged border security strategy. He said the government aimed to make the country "infiltrator-free" in a short period, asserting that illegal immigrants posed threats to national security, the economy and demographic balance. "This country is not a dharamshala and only citizens of the country have the right to live here," he said.
Mr. Shah said the forum should study trends over the next 15-20 years and identify potential security challenges and strategies to counter them. "We have to identify challenges in advance and destroy them before they become major problems," he said, calling for an ecosystem that ensures a secure, infiltrator-free and narcotics-free India.
Linking internal security with the government's development agenda, Mr. Shah said Prime Minister Narendra Modi's goal of making India a developed nation by 2047 could only be achieved with strong internal security. "If we want to become number one in every field, internal security will have to be strengthened further," he said.
He said previous governments had failed to anticipate problems such as narcotics trafficking, Left-wing extremism and unrest in the Northeast before they became acute, forcing the country to deal with their consequences for decades. He said the current government had succeeded in overcoming challenges posed by the three major internal security hotspots, crediting State police forces, Central agencies and the Central Armed Police Forces (CAPFs) for the achievement.
On criminal justice, Mr. Shah said the three new criminal laws would be fully implemented within a year. He said their implementation would enable criminal cases to be disposed of up to the Supreme Court level within three years and increase conviction rates by 25%.
On counter-terrorism, the Home Minister called for taking the anti-terror framework "Prahar" from a policy document to everyday practice and urged agencies to dismantle "360-degree terrorist networks". He cited the coordinated nationwide action against the Popular Front of India (PFI) and its subsequent ban as an example of effective Centre-State coordination.
Mr. Shah also asked State police forces to implement the Narcotics Control Vision Document 2026-2029 and work on the three pillars of "Detect, Disrupt and Destroy" to achieve a drug-free India. He said the fight against narcotics could be won only through coordinated action by the Union government and all State governments.
Highlighting the role of technology in policing, Mr. Shah said integrated databases linking CCTNS, ICJS, NatGrid and NAFIS had been created. He urged young officers to use artificial intelligence for data integration, analysis and identifying criminal modus operandi to generate actionable intelligence and prevent future threats.
The Home Minister further said the government had strengthened mechanisms against fugitive offenders, with around 274 fugitives brought back to India from abroad between 2019 and 2026. He urged all States to ensure that offenders hiding overseas were brought within the ambit of Indian law.
