Home Minister Sushilkumar Shinde has said, there is an urgent need for upward flow of intelligence into a Multi Agency Centre, MAC, for dissemination to stakeholders to fight terrorism. Mr Shinde said, it can be achieved by upgrading the capability of Special Branches of State Police. He said, MAC has emerged as an effective platform for proper coordination between Central and State agencies and its scope is now being extended to more than 450 districts. He was addressing a conference of Directors General and Inspectors General of Police in New Delhi today. Mr Shinde said, leads emanating from investigations of terror cases involving Indian Mujahideen are vigorously pursued to apprehend all those associated with this network. He said, Indian Mujahideen which draws its motivation and sustenance from Pakistan, has been responsible for three out of four major terrorist attacks in the country.
Mr Shinde said, security forces have achieved remarkable successes in restricting the areas of influence of Left Wing Extremism. He said there has also been a drop in the casualty figure of security forces from 111 last year to 97 this year. He said the Centre will continue to help the affected States by providing them Central paramilitary forces as well as developmental interventions in naxal areas. He, however, urged the States to take local intiatives to deal with the problem.
On situation in Jammu and Kashmir, Mr Shinde expressed concern over increase in targetted attacks on security forces. He asked the forces to maintain a fine balance between firm handling of terrorism and adequate restraint in public order situations, particularly to limit civilian casualties and deny space to separatists. The Home Minister said, there has been an improvement in general security situation in North East. He called for effective border management to prevent trans-border movements of insurgent groups like ULFA.
Referring to recent communal clashes in Muzaffarnagar, Mr Shinde stressed on putting in place an early warning system in all districts and constantly engage all communities, particularly in disturbance prone areas. He said, the government favours freedom of speech and expression but mischievous use of social media to foment trouble needs to be checked.
