Union Home Minister Amit Shah on Saturday said the Narendra Modi government took all efforts to strengthen probe agencies such as the NIA and anti-terror laws in line with its policy of zero tolerance towards terrorism.?

The National Investigation Agency will have branches in all the states by May 2024, he said.

The home minister was speaking at the inauguration of the office building of the NIA's Raipur branch in Atal Nagar area of Nava Raipur.

“The Modi government has adopted zero tolerance policy against Left Wing Extremism, terrorism and other related crimes including fake currency and narcotics, and therefore we left no stone unturned to strengthen the NIA,” he said.

The BJP-led Union government also strengthened anti-terror laws, shared terrorism-related inputs with state governments irrespective of the party ruling in a state, strengthened anti-terror investigation agencies and increased conviction rate in such crimes, Shah added.

“In line with this (policy), our government worked towards strengthening the NIA. I am happy that in the cases handled by NIA, the conviction rate has reached 94 per cent from 75 per cent in 2014," he said.

The government has tried to make Kashmir terror-free ever since it came to power, the Union minister said.

“Peace is being witnessed in Kashmir after the abrogation of Article 370 and today our agencies have succeeded in checking terror activities there. It became possible because the NIA took stringent action against those involved in terror funding in 2018, 2019 and 2020. A total of 105 cases (of terror funding) were registered and 876 persons were arrested and in 94 cases charge sheets have been filed,” he added.

The government has also pledged to uproot the Left Wing Extremism which is now restricted to only a few districts in the country, Shah claimed.

“Earlier LWE's influence was spread to 120 districts but it has now shrunk to only 46 districts. In Chhattisgarh there are some districts that are still struggling with the menace but I firmly believe that the Central and state governments will jointly eliminate it,” he said.

Chhattisgarh Chief Minister Bhupesh Baghel, Union minister Renuka Singh, state home minister Tamradhwaj Sahu, BJP leader and former chief minister Raman Singh and NIA director Dinkar Gupta were among those present at the event.

-With PTI Input