India calls for united SAARC stand against terrorism

Islamabad, June 26 (PTI): Warning that the South Asian region is faced with a “serious” security situation, India today sought fullest cooperation among SAARC countries in sharing information on potential terrorists and planned acts of terrorism to create a more secure environment.

“The increasing threat of terrorism poses a major challenge to the maintenance of peace and security and adversely affects economic development in our region,” Home Minister P. Chidambaram said while addressing the SAARC Home Ministers’ Conference here.

“We can all undoubtedly agree that the South Asian region is faced with a serious security situation,” he told the meeting being attended by the ministers from Sri Lanka, Nepal, Bangladesh, Bhutan, Afghanistan, Maldives, besides India and Pakistan.

Chidambaram made it clear that it was only with the “fullest cooperation among our countries that we will be in position to effectively tackle the grave threat of terrorism in our region.” He also made a strong pitch for examining whether the existing conventions have been effective.

“We also need to cooperate each other in sharing information on potential terrorists and planned acts of terrorism, and all other forms of criminal activities in order to create more secure environment,” he said.

“It is incumbent upon us to ensure that the instruments and the resources at our disposal are put to the best possible use in our fight against terrorism,” he added.

Chidambaram commended his Pakistani counterpart Rehman Malik for his opening remarks in which the latter highlighted the threat of terrorism and especially the fallout of 9/11 attacks in New York and the 26/11 strikes in Mumbai. Both Chidambaram and Malik had meetings yesterday which were dominated by the issue of terrorism and action against the perpetrators of Mumbai terror attacks.