Amit Shah orders protest playbook: Police research body to draft SOP after studying agitations since 1974

BPR&D told to study post-1974 protests, probe funding trails, and suggest strategies

Union Home Minister Amit Shah has asked the Bureau of Police Research & Development (BPR&D) to draw up a standard operating procedure (SOP) to prevent large-scale protests, after conducting a detailed study of all major agitations in India since Independence, with special focus on movements after 1974, according to a report by The Indian Express.

The instructions came during the National Security Strategies Conference-2025, hosted by the Intelligence Bureau in New Delhi in late July.

Senior officials told the paper that the BPR&D has been asked to examine the causes, financial dimensions, outcomes, and 'behind-the-scene players' of historic protests, and frame strategies to prevent what the government describes as 'mass agitations by vested interests.'

Funding under the scanner

One of the key directions, sources told The Indian Express, is to trace the financial pipelines behind protest movements. To do this, the BPR&D will work with enforcement agencies, including the Enforcement Directorate (ED), the Financial Intelligence Unit-India (FIU-IND), and the Central Board of Direct Taxes (CBDT).

These agencies will also prepare a separate SOP for tracking unknown terror networks through irregular financial flows, in a bid to dismantle funding structures that could be supporting extremism or organised unrest.

Religious gatherings, stampede risks

Shah has also asked the BPR&D to undertake a study of religious congregations across states to understand the recurring reasons behind stampedes and other accidents. The outcome will feed into a proposed SOP for monitoring and regulating mass gatherings.

Officials told The Indian Express that state police departments will be tapped for old case files and CID reports to help build a comprehensive dataset.

Punjab in focus: extremism and crime

According to sources, Shah has also directed the National Investigation Agency (NIA), Border Security Force (BSF), and Narcotics Control Bureau (NCB) to come up with tailored frameworks to deal with the twin challenges of Khalistani extremism and criminal syndicates in Punjab.

Intelligence agencies have been advised to build teams with a strong grasp of Punjab’s political and social complexities, while the NIA has been asked to explore 'out-of-the-box' methods to disrupt the terror-criminal nexus. Suggestions include shifting hardened gangsters who run operations from Punjab prisons to jails in other states.

Why this matters

The push for SOPs comes at a time when India has seen frequent flashpoints of social unrest, from quota agitations and farm protests to communal flare-ups. By studying decades of protest history and financial patterns, the government hopes to create a template for early detection, preventive action, and tighter control of mass movements.