M J Akbar Calls For Global Cooperation To Eliminate Cross-Border Terrorism - The India Saga

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M J Akbar Calls For Global Cooperation To Eliminate Cross-Border Terrorism

NEW DELHI: Making a strong pitch for pursuit of terror financing and following the drug money, Minister of State for…

M J Akbar Calls For Global Cooperation To Eliminate Cross-Border Terrorism

NEW DELHI: Making a strong pitch for pursuit of terror financing and following the drug money, Minister of State for External Affairs M.J.Akbar on Monday called for global cooperation to eliminate cross-border terrorism as terrorists do not believe in a nation state or nationalism but in faith-based space. 

ÂWe must identify not only the frontline enemy but all its support systems. We must have honest answers to candid questions. Where does terror financing come from? We must follow the drug money. Steps currently being taken by Financial Action Task Force (FATF) are most welcome, and we cannot falter in our pursuit of terror financing. We must cooperate to eliminate cross-border terrorism,” Mr. Akbar said. 

He was participating in the high-level International Conference on Countering Terrorism and Preventing Violent Extremism, hosted by Tajikistan in Dushanbe in cooperation with the UN, OSCE and EU. Mr. Akbar thanked the Tajik Government for preventing radicalized elements from spreading into the Central Asian region and beyond by their historic struggle during the Tajik civil war. 

Mr Akbar said India is fighting terrorism in Afghanistan in many ways  but chief among them is people-oriented development. “Our assistance to Afghanistan is over three billion dollars and includes, at the moment, 116 new projects in 31 provinces,” he told the conference.

Pointing out that there are no short cuts in fighting terrorism, he said terrorists and their sponsors attract the economically vulnerable into their suicide factories through lies, distortion, illusion as well as the Âromance of regressionÂ.

ÂWe in India face and blunt the threat of radicalization through our shared cultural ethos and an abiding commitment to equality of faith and equitable economic opportunity. In India, every morning begins with the azaan, followed by the temple bells of a mandir, followed by the recitation of the Guru Granth Sahib in a gurdwara, followed, on a Sunday, by the peal of church bells. And because it is India, it is audible,” Mr. Akbar said.

ÂWe are gathered here, friends, to unite and defend our very lives and civilization. We must identify not only the frontline enemy but all its support systems,” he said. 

He said the long war against terrorism must be fought along three dimensions — the battlefield, the battlefield within the mind were seeds of radicalization are being planted and the economic front. He noted that Tajikistan has banned the Islamic Rebirth Party of Tajikistan (IRPT) as a terrorist organization, without ifs and buts. 

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