Vital deradicalisation programme of state ATS discontinued

The Maharashtra ATS would get the radicalised youth to undergo counselling and take the help of religious leaders to deradicalise him. Representation pic

The deradicalisation programme of the Maharashtra Anti-Terrorism Squad (ATS), which helped the state save over 200 youths from joining terror organisations, has allegedly been discontinued for more than one year. The deradicalisation policy was started in the year 2016 by 1990-batch.

IPS officer Atul Chandra Kulkarni during his tenure as Maharashtra ATS chief. The policy had won a lot of praise worldwide and Union Home Minister Amit Shah had asked all states to follow it in a DGPs' meeting in 2019.

The process

According to sources in Maharashtra ATS, the deradicalisation policy was a befitting reply to terror organisations like ISIS and LeT, which have a huge presence on social media. On the dark net, the terror outfits have been trying to radicalise Indian youths to join their organisations to save a particular religion."We kept tabs on social media and whenever we noticed little activities of our targets, we would reach out to them. If the person had not crossed the line, we would deradicalise him using various methods which included counselling and taking the help of religious leaders and priests," an ATS officer said.

Officials who have been trained under this scheme to keep tabs on social media believe that stopping it is a big loss, because they also got to know more about the recruiters. "The aim was to create trust amid members of the minority community, which was the target of terror outfits. The force is not against them, we try to save them. We took the help of the religious priests to counsel the radicalised youth to bring them back into the mainstream," an officer who was part of the deradicalisation process told mid-day, without commenting on why the policy has been discontinued.

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During Devendra Fadnavis's tenure as chief minister, former Maharashtra DGP Pravin Dixit and a team of Maharashtra ATS gave a presentation in Delhi about deradicalisation. It was approved by Fadnavis and he also lauded the efforts of Maharashtra ATS. The state at the time had rolled out a policy known as 50 point socio economy strategy, with the aim of bringing back youths of the minority community into the mainstream. The ATS officials would coordinate with the state and provide jobs to such youths in different sectors.

How it helped

"The deradicalisation policy helped my cousin who was radicalised on social media by ISIS and was willing to join the terror outfit. It was Maharashtra ATS which landed at our house at the right time. They didn't arrest him but helped us bring him back into the main stream. It took at least three-four months of continuous counselling. Religious leaders were also called to explain to him the true meaning of Islam. Today he lives a normal life and is working abroad," the relative of a deradicalised youth told mid-day.

"We have been visiting the ATS office whenever called. A lot of discussion used to happen during the tenures of Atul Kulkarni and Deven Bharti. But since then the communication has reduced and now we don't get calls for counselling youths. I am not aware that the deradicalisation policy has been discontinued," said an Islamic priest who was part of the deradicalisation policy.

Despite repeated attempts to contact him, ATS Maharashtra Chief Vineet Agrawal was unavailable for comment.