Terrorism will remain here if the world does not unite to fight it gen bipin rawat

Terrorism will remain here if the world does not unite to fight it gen bipin rawat

To fight terrorism effectively, the world community should identify the nations which sponsor and support terrorism and the sources of funds with which terrorist group buy sophisticated weapons.

The Raisina Dialogue 2018 saw an interesting panel discussion on ‘The Terror State: Innovative Solutions to New Threats’ on the second day of the conference on Wednesday. The participants were Indian Army Chief, General Bipin Rawat, Dr. Husain Haqqani, former ambassador of Pakistan to the US, V. Nikonov, the Member of Duma, Russia, Maj. Gen. (Retd.) Amos Gilead, Executive Director, Institute for Policy and Strategy, Herzliya and General Chris Deverell, Joint Forces Commander, UK. It was moderated by Virginia Comolli, Senior Fellow, The International Institute for Strategic Studies.

General Bipin Rawat warned that the menace of terrorism will continue to affect the world unless countries around the globe come together to fight it united.

“Terrorism is here to stay unless the whole world come together and work together,” Gen. Rawat said while speaking at the panel discussion on ‘The Terror State: Innovative Solutions to New Threats’ at the Raisina Dialogue 2018 here today.

Gen. Rawat stressed the urgent need for the world community to come to a consensus on the definition of ‘terrorist’. He regretted that there is no consensus on the definition itself and different countries treat ‘terrorists’ differently according to their choice.

He said to fight terrorism effectively, the world community should identify the nations which sponsor and support terrorism and the sources of funds with which terrorist group buy sophisticated weapons.

Saying drugs are a major source of funding for terrorists, Gen. Rawat suggested buying out all the poppy crops from the farmers directly which will help provide farmers reasonable money which they are denied now and also stifle the funding of terrorists. Gen. Rawat warned against the danger of terrorists getting their hands to other mass destruction weapons, including nuclear, biological and chemical weapons, which would be disastrous for the humanity.

He also suggested downsizing of the evils of terrorists in the media as it would check their efforts to get outreach to the public through their violent activites. Gen. Rawat also stressed the need to take comprehensive action against the terror groups, both military and political fronts, to have a better impact. He pointed out that many times, we take stringent military actions but fail to control their political fronts which help them to increase their outreach.

He also stressed on the need to develop the capacity to take on the terror groups and the States supporting it, as most times, victim countries themselves have to take on the fight.

Husain Haqqani, former Pakistan ambassador to the US and Senior Fellow at the Hudson Institute, said while there is a need for united action against the terror groups, in fact there is an erosion in the global war against terror, launched 16 years back. He said there is an increase in the number of states supporting terror now, and there is a need to end exceptions to designating terrorists.

Nikonov, Member of the State Duma, Russia, said terrorists need to be eliminated at the beginning itself and that is why Russia intervened in Syria where terrorists were first targeting the government there and then planning to move to Central Asia. He stressed the role of regional powers in the fight against terrorists and said “they can do it.”

Nikonov pointed out terrorists are getting big help from the money and weapons coming from the countries of US allies. He said Russia is ready to work with US, China, India and other countries to fight terrorism. He also agreed with other panellists that there are nothing like ‘good’ Taliban and ‘bad’ Taliban.

Major General (Retd.) Amos Gilead, Executive Director, Institute for Policy and Strategy, Herzliya, said there was no difference between the ‘Sunni terror’ and ‘Shia terror’ and added that all terrors should be nipped in the bud if we need to secure the world.

Courtesy : RAISINA 2018