War on terror has led to killing of innocents: Vice President

Vice President Hamid Ansari on Tuesday said the war on terror has bred its own brand of deprivation and suffering and hundreds of people have been killed or injured even though they are not connected with terror activities.

It has led to anger and a desire to seek justice by any means, resulting in extremist action and terrorist violence, Ansari said in his speech after inaugurating the third Counter-Terrorism Conference here.

"The removal of existing, often moderate, regimes and the subsequent breakdown of governance resulted in extremist groups capturing the political initiative, exploiting the resentment and anger of the local populations and carrying out terrorist acts with impunity," he said.

"The repeated attempts at regime change by force and with utter disregard for the local ramifications and fallouts, had led to the quagmire -- whether it be in Syria-Iraq that led to the bith of the Islamic State or Afghanistan, which led to the rise of Taliban or al Qaida, or Libya that led to Al-Jama'a."

The Vice President said the most virulent factor fueling terrorism is state sponsorship of and collusion with terrorists and Pakistan's use of extremist groups as an instrument of foreign policy is well documented.

Ansari said that states sponsoring terrorism must be isolated by international community and forced to abandon the use of terrorism as a tool of state policy.

He said security in the Indian Ocean region is capricious on account of a complex set of problems inherited from its recent past.

He said that to provide a comprehensive answer to the threats posed by transnational crime and terrorism in the Indian Ocean Region, regional security and development agendas need to be connected and coordinated.

The Vice President said that in recent years nothing has caused greater pain, disruption and inconvenience to societies, governments and individuals than the phenomenon of terrorism.

"What is needed to curb and eliminate the scourge of terrorism is for the countries in the region to unite and fight it in all its forms and manifestations," Ansari said.

The three-day conference has been organised by the India Foundation to discuss counter-terrorism strategy.

--IANS

akk/tsb/dg