Radicalisation through internet 'serious challenge' to regional security: Deputy NSA

The poison of radicalisation and extremism is now able to travel very fast through internet and is posing a "serious challenge" to regional security, Deputy National Security Adviser Pankaj Saran said Tuesday.

Addressing BIMSTEC representatives at the Vivekananda International Foundation here, he said one of the factors that unite the BIMSTEC is that in one way or the other, all member states are victims of terrorism and have a common interest in combating this threat to their national security.

"The threat from the social media and the internet is far more lethal than we have appreciated. I think we cannot underestimate the dangers it poses to each of our countries," Saran said at the BIMSTEC think-tank dialogue on regional security.

"The fact is that the poison of radicalisation and extremism is today able to travel very fast through internet and through the cyber medium from the new fountain head that has been created in the world which is loosely centred around the area of Syria, Iraq, Libya and it has already travelled to our region through Afghanistan and it is posing serious challenge to our security," he said.

The Bay of Bengal Initiative for Multi-Sectoral Technical and Economic Cooperation (BIMSTEC) is comprised of Bangladesh, India, Myanmar, Sri Lanka, Thailand, Nepal and Bhutan.