Indian NSA Ajit Doval says we can cope with terror, calls for collective response
Rezaul Hasan Laskar New Delhi, Wednesday, October 22, 2014
NSA Ajit Doval
The threat from Al Qaeda or ISIS is not of a magnitude that cannot be dealt with by India though the world community needs to take more steps, including the adoption of a comprehensive convention on terrorism, to deal with the menace, National Security Advisor Ajit Dovalsaid on Tuesday.
"Right now we are very closely monitoring (the situation) and I don't think that the threats are of that magnitude from either one of them which we are not in a position to cope (with)," Doval said when he was asked at a security conference in Delhi whether there is any major threat to India from Al Qaeda and the Islamic State of Iraq and Syria.
"We have watched it very closely that in case...they start targeting India or any particular interest of India, we will have to take a very serious view of that," he added.
"There is nothing (like a) big or small threat. We consider terrorism as a threat. It is not on the basis of geography, but on the basis of the groups; it is on the basis of their capabilities and targets. Any group, about whom we have got information that has the capability and intention to strike against us, they would be our biggest targets," Doval said after delivering the keynote address at the Munich Security Conference Core Group Meeting.
His remarks assume significance against the backdrop of efforts by Al Qaeda and ISIS to enlist support among India's large Muslim population. Al Qaeda chief Ayman al-Zawahiri recently announced the formation of branch of his terror network for the Indian subcontinent. Several Indian men from Maharashtra and Tamil Nadu have also gone to Syria and Iraq to fight with ISIS.
During his address, Doval blamed Pakistan for holding up the adoption of a comprehensive convention against terrorism at the United Nations to effectively deal with the scourge. Many countries have put in place military, technical and legal systems to fight terrorism at the domestic level but the world community had failed to make headway in creating global systems to fight terrorism, he said.
Doval pointed out that India had proposed a UN convention against terrorism way back in 2001 but still it is to be adopted as Pakistan had opposed bringing so-called "freedom-fighters" within the definition of terrorists.
The problem of terrorism had become more intense than it was 13 years ago when the "war against terror" was launched, he remarked. "Unfortunately, should something happen, there should be a collective response, a systemic convergence," he said. Doval further said India wants to resolve all conflicts with other countries through talks and negotiations.
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