World must unite to fight IS threat: Manish Tewari

Congress leader Manish Tewari today urged all the democratic countries in the world to unite in order to fight the deadly militant group, Islamic State (IS) and also advised the BJP-led NDA government to reflect within itself as to what is leading a growing number of Indian youth to join the ranks with the dreaded outfit.

The Islamic State (IS) militants released a third video on Saturday, purportedly showing the execution of British aid worker David Haines.

Reacting to the brutal slaying, Tewari told ANI, "Well the ISIS has emerged as the single most pernicious threat to civilization not only in the Middle East, but all across the world. All democratic countries need to come together in order to ensure that the head of this snake is cut-off. Unfortunately, there seems to be a dichotomy, there seems to be a contradiction and approach which is allowing the ISIS to continue with its activity and expand with its sphere of influence,"

The former Information and Broadcasting minister also expressed concern over the reports of Indian students joining the militant group.

"Most disturbing is the fact that Indian students are going and joining the ISIS and its instrumentalities. This government needs to reflect that the war on terror has been going on for three decades. Middle East has been turmoil since 1990, but not a single Indian citizen went and joined them," he said.

"This government needs to reflect what is it that is there in their policies which is causing this alienation and sending people on a trajectory which can have very ominous implication for India's national security," he added.

IS, formerly known as ISIS (Islamic State of Iraq and Syria), released a video on September 2 showing the beheading of American journalist Steven Sotloff, who was kidnapped in Syria in August 2013.

Another American journalist, James Foley, was executed and a video was released on August 19.