Excelsior Correspondent
JAMMU, Nov 11: Amidst concerns raised from various quarters on radicalization of youth in Jammu and Kashmir including from Centre Government’s Special Representative Dineshwar Sharma and Army chief Gen Bipin Rawat among others, the Union Ministry of Home Affairs (MHA) has decided to set up two Special Divisions named Counter Terrorism and Counter Radicalization (CTCR) and Cyber and Information Security (ICS).
“Each of the two divisions will be headed by an officer of the rank of Joint Secretary in the MHA,” official sources told the Excelsior.
They said the new Divisions were aimed at tackling the ever increasing menace of radicalization among youth in various States of the country including Jammu and Kashmir and misuse of social media for fuelling radicalization, terrorism and unrest in the Valley.
“Union Home Minister Rajnath Singh was concerned about reports of radicalization among the youth through various channels including their inclination towards Islamic State of Iraq and Syria (ISIS) in various States of the country including Kashmir valley,” sources pointed out and said: “the CTCR division will exclusively deal with radicalization, the ICS will tackle cyber crimes including instigating the youth to take to terrorism and stone pelting in the Valley”.
Sources said the CTCR wing will also focus on the IS to timely prevent the youth’s getting inclined towards the global terrorist outfit, which has been instrumental in terror attacks across the world and was also trying to gain foothold in India by motivating the youths through online propaganda.
They added that the new MHA division is being tasked not only to prevent youths from falling into the trap of various terrorist outfits across the country including the Kashmir valley but also launch online initiatives to counter the propaganda unleashed by various terrorist outfits including Lashkar-e-Toiba (LeT), Jaish-e-Mohammad (JeM) and Hizbul Mujahideen (HM) to give correct picture of the situation to the youth.
Sources said the initiative was aimed at guiding the Kashmiri and other youths properly about the terrorist outfits and prevent them from falling into the wrong hands at their prime age. The terrorist outfits had been unleashing online propaganda from various parts of the world to misguide the youth and lure them into the militancy.
Centre Government’s Special Representative on Jammu and Kashmir, Dineshwar Sharma, who today concluded his maiden six-day visit to the State and Army chief Gen Bipin Rawat besides top political leadership of the country had repeatedly been raising concerns over radicalization of the youth in Kashmir and other parts of the country and steps required to tackle the menace.
The second division of Cyber and Information Security was also aimed at countering the militants, who had been using social media to incite violence in Kashmir by calling upon the youth to gather at the site of encounters to help the militants by indulging in stone pelting.
It may be mentioned here that Cyber Cells of the Centre and State Governments had worked in unison this summer and blocked a number of WhatsApp and Facebook Groups, which were being run from Pakistan and controlled by various terrorist outfits, who had been directing Kashmiri groups to gather at particular places for violence.
Sources said the Cyber Security Division will monitor online crimes and threats, including cyber fraud and hacking, and suggest ways to minimize and fight them.
The Cyber Security Division of the Union Home Ministry has been formed to curb growth in cyber crimes and counter online fraud, hacking, identity theft, dark net, trafficking and even cyber attacks on critical infrastructure.
Pointing out that both the Divisions to be headed by senior officers of the Ministry of Home Affairs in the rank of Joint Secretary will have experts in tackling online radicalization propaganda and cyber crimes, sources said they would become operational soon and also coordinate with Jammu and Kashmir and other State Governments to tackle the increasing trends of radicalization and cyber frauds.
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