Terrorism, insurgency challenges to India's internal security: Rajiv Mehrishi

Union Home Secretary Rajiv Mehrishi on Wednesday said that terrorism and insurgency are challenges in India, which have huge impact on internal security as well as the perception of internal security.

"Terrorism and insurgency are a challenge. We have terrorism sponsored by Pakistan from across the border. We have insurgencies in the left-winged extremist areas in Central India. At the much lower level, we have insurgency in Northern India also," Mehrishi said while addressing a conference on 'Homeland Security 2016' here.

Mehrishi further said that terrorism has huge impact on internal security as well as the perception of internal security, adding that its consequences and implications are visible in various sectors across the economy.

"Terrorism is an area, which has huge impact. Even if the number is low, it has several implications in terms of both internal security and the perception of the internal security among the public. It is equally important that people are not only secure, but also feel secure. Consequences and implications are across sectors, across the economy, and it has both the economic and social impact," he said.

Mehrishi also highlighted the crime related to drugs, which is continuously rising, and is mostly being exported illegally into India through its porous borders.

"We have a new range of crimes that we did not have in the past. As I say we are ill-equipped, perhaps ill-trained, to handle. We have crime related to drugs. Not too young, not too old either. The changing nature of drug and drug crime is a social worry. It has huge security implications," he said.

Further Mehrishi expressed his concern over increasing crime rate, range of crimes and its complexities, and stressed on beefing up security on borders.