Maharashtra Police, Muslim clerics jointly hold drive to de-radicalise youth

With the threat of more and more youth being radicalised by terrorist groups via online media, Maharashtra Police is undertaking a massive de-radicalisation drive.

When a 16-year-old convent educated girl from Pune had been found radicalised by the ideology of the Islamic State, top officers of the anti terrorism squad were left perplexed. However, the girl soon turned out to be a success story for the investigating agency which is investing considerable resources in stemming the worrying trend of young individuals becoming radicalised online and joining the terror group.

Over the last few months, there have been several stories of the success that the agency has had in deradicalising those who have been influenced by the ideology. A Navi Mumbai journalist, who professed that he wanted to be the spokesperson of the Islamic State, ended up being a speaker in the recently organised deradicalistion seminar at the Maharashtra DGP office. He was deradicalised over a period of time.

While there are no clear official figures of how many youth have left the state to join IS, Maharashtra Police claim that radicalisation is a key concern for them.

"Radicalisation as a threat has not only been recognized it has been taken cognizance of and efforts to put in place to counter it by active deradicalisation steps is on the way," Mumbai CP Ahmad Javed said.

ATS has roped in local clerics to deradicalise youth. 93 police stations in Mumbai have been asked to closely monitor the cases of missing youth. Dedicated cyber cell has been removing 2-3 webistes containing inflammatory content per month. Community contact schemes are also being organised by ATS across the state.

However, former director general of police (DGP) in Maharashtra Sanjeev Dayal who was one of the first few officers in the state to identify the threat has said that radicalisation cannot be the handled just by the police force. a holistic multi-department approach is required..

"We don't just need a counter radicalisation programme but a counter terrorism doctrine and a well thought out policy as to how we are going to prevent it and what are we going to do with people we have identified," Dayal said.

What remains to be seen is that whether the current government will involve other departments to tackle radicalisation in the state.