Vital deradicalisation programme of state ATS discontinued

The deradicalisation programme of the Maharashtra AntiTerrorism 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 1990batchIPS 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 DGPsrsquo meeting in 2019The processAccording 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 religionldquoWe 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 priestsrdquo an ATS officer saidOfficials 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 ldquoThe 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 mainstreamrdquo an officer who was part of the deradicalisation process told midday without commenting on why the policy has been discontinuedAlso Read Maharashtra Stretch on MumbaiAhmedabad Highway where Cyrus Mistry was killed has claimed 26 lives in 2022 so farDuring Devendra Fadnavisrsquos 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 sectorsHow it helpedldquoThe 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 didnrsquot arrest him but helped us bring him back into the main stream It took at least threefour 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 abroadrdquo the relative of a deradicalised youth told middayldquoWe 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 donrsquot get calls for counselling youths I am not aware that the deradicalisation policy has been discontinuedrdquo said an Islamic priest who was part of the deradicalisation policyDespite repeated attempts to contact him ATS Maharashtra Chief Vineet Agrawal was unavailable for comment