Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Saturday took part in an hour-long Yoga session with top police officers of the country, who gathered in Hyderabad at the Sardar Vallabhbhai Patel National Police Academy for an annual conference focusing on cross-border terrorism, infiltration and radicalisation of youth.
Later, he paid tributes to Martyrs Column at SVPNPA in Hyderabad, where he placed a wreath.
The prime minister also paid floral tributes to Patel at his statue at SVPNPA, and planted a sapling on the Academy premises.
The three-day conference of the directors general of police of all states was inaugurated in Hyderabad on Friday by Union Home Minister Rajnath Singh.
Union Ministers of State for Home Affairs Kiren Rijiju and Hansraj Gangaram Ahir, besides National Security Adviser Ajit Doval and Home Secretary Rajiv Mehrishi are among those attending the event.
The PM spent the entire day in deliberations with the top police officers before flying back to Delhi in the evening.
“Issues like cross-border terrorism, radicalisation of youth and attempts to lure Indians to Middle East terrorist groups, like ISIS, and other matters of internal security will be discussed at the meeting,” official sources said.
Filling up of vacant posts in various police forces, reforms in police forces, menace of narcotics smuggling and human trafficking will also be discussed extensively during the conference.
The PM and the home minister interacted with the top police officers and get their feedback about the internal security situation and various aspects of police personnel, the sources said.
This is for the third time since Independence that the conference is being held outside Delhi. It was held in Guwahati in 2014 and Kutch in Gujarat last year. The idea of holding the meeting of DGPs and IGPs outside Delhi was mooted by Modi after he assumed power in 2014.
The conference is being attended by around 100 DGPs of states, directors general of central paramilitary forces and their inspectors general.
IMAGE: PM Narendra Modi paid tributes to Sardar Patel in Hyderabad on Saturday. Photograph: @PMOINdia/Twitter