'Terrorists are terrorists', cannot be glorified: MoS MEA Meenakshi Lekhi

Asserting that terrorism cannot be justified, Minister of State for External Affairs Meenakshi Lekhi on Friday said listing and delisting of individuals and entities under the UN sanctions regime must be done objectively and not for political or religious considerations.

Addressing the International Counter Terrorism Conference 2022 organised by the Global Counter Terrorism Council, Lekhi called for a collaborative approach to deal with terrorism and stressed the need for summoning political will to combat the menace.

"We need to summon the political will to combat terrorism and not allow terrorism to be justified and terrorists be glorified," she said. "Terrorists are terrorists."

"We must reform the working methods of the committees dealing with sanctions and counter-terrorism. Transparency, accountability and effectiveness are the need of the day," she said.

Lekhi said that exclusivist thinking must be firmly discouraged as it divides the world and harms social fabric. "Such approaches facilitate radicalization and recruitment by breeding fear, mistrust and hatred among different communities," she said.

Listing and delisting of individuals and entities under the UN sanctions regimes must be done objectively and not for political or religious considerations, she said.

Lekhi said that linkages between terrorism and transnational organised crime must be recognised and addressed vigorously.

In combating terror financing, Financial Action Task Force (FATF) should continue to identify and remedify the weaknesses in anti-money laundering and counterterror financing frameworks, she said.

Lekhi also called for ensuring adequate funding to UN counter terrorism bodies.

"For three decades now India has faced a proxy war by our neighbour," she said in an obvious reference to Pakistan.

"We have denounced all use of terrorist proxies and emphasised on the importance of denying any logistical, financial or military support to such activities which could be used to launch acts of terrorism on foreign soil. This has been our constant stand," Lekhi said.

"We follow zero tolerance toward acts of terrorism and unequivocally we have been condemning terrorism in all forms and manifestations including cross border terrorism," Lekhi asserted.