Amid Threat From SFJ-Modi, Shah To Attend DGP-IGP Conference

Since 2014, annual DGP-IGP conferences have been held outside Delhi, except in 2020, when it was conducted virtually.

New Delhi:Prime Minister Narendra Modi, Union Home Minister Amit Shah, National Security Advisor Ajit Doval and several other top security officials will be attending the much-hyped DGP-IGP conference scheduled to start at Bhubaneswar from Friday amid a fresh video message circulated by Khalistani separatist Gurpatwant Singh Pannun threatening to disrupt the conference.

Pannun who heads the Sikhs for Justice (SFJ), a Khalistani separatist group, in a video message urged his supporters and sympathizers to “disguise and take cover in temples-hotels in Bhubaneswar to disrupt the DG-IGP conference.” The government of India has earlier declared Pannun a designated terrorist under the Unlawful Activities Prevention Act (UAPA).

Besides attending the pan-India security conference, Modi is also scheduled to address meetings and attend roadshows in Bhubaneswar. Union Home Minister Amit Shah will reach Bhubaneswar on Friday and chair the meeting. Significantly, the event is taking place in Odisha for the first time.

According to a home ministry official, the conference will discuss several critical security-related issues such as internal security, cybercrime Maoist menace, and challenges posed by AI tools.

Latest threats of drones and counter-terrorism among other matters will also be discussed elaborately in the three day-long conference, the official said. The conference will also be attended by DGPs of all the states and Union territories, and chiefs of all the Central and State security agencies.

Top officials of the Intelligence Bureau, CRPF DG, chiefs of RAW, NSG and SPG will also attend the conference. As per the vision of Prime Minister Narendra Modi, since 2014, the annual conferences, which used to be customarily organised in Delhi, have been organised outside Delhi with the exception of the year 2020 when the conference was held virtually.

The conference was organised at Guwahati in 2014; Dhordo, Rann of Kutch in 2015; National Police Academy, Hyderabad in 2016; BSF Academy, Tekanpur in 2017; Kevadiya in 2018; and IISER, Pune in 2019 and Lucknow in 2021. The conference for the year 2022 was held at the National Agricultural Science Complex in New Delhi in January 2023.

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