Hummingbird News Desk
NEW DELHI, 21 APRIL: Union Home Minister Amit Shah on Thursday lauded the National Investigation Agency (NIA) for its contribution to India’s security and said that the agency has played a crucial role in India’s fight against terrorism and must be identified as an international agency.
Mr Shah who was speaking at the 13th National Investigation Agency Day programme at Dr Ambedkar International Centre in Delhi, said, “We have worked to strengthen the NIA Act and the UAPA Act, in any terrorist attack outside India where Indian casualties take place, the authority to investigate such cases has been given to NIA. In the new amendment, we have also given powers to the NIA to stop infiltration, explosive substances and cyber crimes. Earlier NIA had the authority to declare organizations as terrorist organizations, now for the first time we have given authority to NIA to declare organizations as well as individuals as terrorists and so far 36 persons have been declared terrorists.”
Mr Shah said terrorism is a curse for any civilized society, and India has suffered the greatest pain from this curse. There can be no greater violation of human rights than terrorism, that is why, complete eradication of terrorism is very important to protect human rights, NIA should work determinedly to end terrorism.
Union Home Minister said that the NIA has wonderful work over the past seven years in many difficult areas and I would like to make a special mention of Jammu and Kashmir. He said battling terrorists in Jammu and Kashmir is one aspect, but rooting out terrorism is another, and, if we want to uproot terrorism, then we will have to demolish its terror funding systems. With NIA registering terror funding cases, I can confidently say that NIA has greatly helped in rooting out terrorism from Jammu and Kashmir through registration of terror funding cases.
In his address, Mr Shah said, “NIA investigates crimes where it is difficult to gather evidences, however its achievements are an inspiration for the police and all anti terrorism agencies of the country and I wholeheartedly congratulate the NIA family for this.”
“I can confidently say that NIA has greatly helped in rooting out terrorism from Jammu and Kashmir. Due to NIA’s alertness, financial routes of terrorists have been shut down, NIA has registered a number of cases against the over ground workers in Jammu and Kashmir and done well in destroying their sleeper cells,” Mr Shah said.
Home Minister also said, “The NIA has also started investigating cases of Left Wing Extremism have been provided ammunition and logistics and some cases have been given to the NIA to investigate Terror Funding as well as the origin of the funding of Left Wing Extremist Organizations and it is hoped that just as in Jammu-Kashmir, they will achieve major success there also. 105 cases related to terror funding were registered, 94 charge sheets were filed against 876 accused, 796 accused have been arrested, out of which 100 accused have also been convicted, which is a major achievement.”
Mr Shah said it has been the government’s efforts to coordinate sharing of all terrorism related information with police and agencies of all States, strengthen anti-terror laws, give power to anti-terrorist institutions and the aim should be for 100 percent conviction in terror cases.
Home Minister said that NIA has been in existence for 13 years, during this period more than 400 cases have been registered, challans have been filed in more than 349 cases, 2,494 criminals have been apprehended, 391 persons have been successfully sentenced and the conviction ratio is 93.25 percent.
He said much work has been done since 2014 on NIA’s empowerment after the formation of the government under the leadership of Prime Minister Narendra Modi. We want NIA to be strong and it should receive global recognition as an anti-terrorism agency.
Mr Shah said there should be major changes in investigation methodology, it should no longer depend on Third Degree methods and instead on technology, data and information. There should be a database to bring about this change, NIA has been given the task of creating a national database in seven areas – narcotics, hawala transactions, arms smuggling, counterfeit currencies, bomb blasts, terror funding and terrorism, and work has begun on a good note. If this national database is created, then it will be of great help not only to national agencies but also police agencies.
He also said the NIA should help BPR&D in studying the Modus Operandi used by terrorists to trap young boys.
Mr Shah added that since 2014, the government has taken many steps to strengthen the NIA which included strengthening of the NIA Act and the UAPA Act. The NIA must work towards being recognised as an international agency, he said.
“To develop NIA on the lines of other such strong counter-terror agencies in the world, a cell of two experts has been set up,” Shah said.
He said the government is making every effort to have coordination between agencies and state police on information related to terrorism and to strengthen counter-terror laws.
“Counter-terror agencies must be strengthened and we must have goal of 100% conviction in terror cases,”he said.
“Our success should not be measured in terms of cases. It should be consolidated as a tradition. Our success should not be individual but institutional. A mechanism should be worked out to institutionalise the tradition,” he said.
The Home Minister also presented awards to the officers of NIA for outstanding service on the occasion. Ministers of State for Home Affairs, Ajay Kumar Mishra and Nishith Pramanik, DG, NIA, Delhi Police Commissioner and NIA officers also attended the programme.
Tags: #NIA #Terrorism #AmitShah #UnionHomeMinister #NIADay
