Proscribe countries sponsoring terrorism, says Mukherjee

Describing terrorism as a global threat which poses an unprecedented challenge to all nations, President Pranab Mukherjee on Tuesday asked the world to proscribe the countries that support or sponsor terrorism as an instrument of state policy.

"It is imperative that the world in one voice rejects all manifestations of terrorism, without distinction, and proscribes states that support or sponsor terrorism as an instrument of state policy," he said while inaugurating the Counter-Terrorism Conference here.

"Terrorism is a global threat which poses an unprecedented challenge to all nations. No cause can justify terrorist acts. It is imperative that the world acts in unison against terrorism, without political considerations. Therefore, there is a need to take a resolve to not justify terrorist means whatever be the reason or the source," he said.

The president said that important aspects of counter-terrorism strategy are capacity building to prevent attacks through intelligence collection and collation, development of technological capabilities, raising of special forces and enactment of special laws.

"Though we have evolved certain mechanisms in this direction, there is scope for further intensifying these efforts.

"Counter-terrorism is generally considered to be about tactics, weapons, force levels and intelligence gathering. While these things are important the predominant focus has to be on the political management of terrorism. This includes addressing issues of ideology and dealing with countries that sponsor or support terrorism," he said.

Mukherjee said that the country's counter-terrorism effort has to be more pointed, more focused, more objective and more professional.

"While doing so there will always be a dilemma of whether we are threatening individual liberties or human rights. We have, therefore, to be judicious in protecting larger freedoms and democratic values," he said.

"We need to fight this scourge at all levels- through shaping of public opinion, society building and evolving a concerted and integrated counter- terrorism policy premised on international cooperation in intelligence sharing," he added.