New Ways to Fight Terror

In his address to the East Asia Summit (EAS) in Kuala Lumpur on Sunday, Prime Minister rendra Modi called for a new global resolve to fight terrorism and spoke of unimpeded commerce in the Asia Pacific and the India Ocean regions. In his remarks at the EAS, Modi said that “the barbaric terrorist strikes” in Paris, Ankara, Beirut, Mali and the Russian aircraft that was brought down in Egypt’s Sii last month were stark reminders of the fact that the shadow of terror stretched across societies and the world both in recruitment and the choice of targets. “We must build new global resolve and new strategies for combating terrorism without balancing it against political considerations,” he added. The first global war against terrorism that the United States had launched just after the holocaust of 9/11, has not been as effective as it might have been because of an unfortute choice of the first partner—Pakistan, the world leader in exporting terrorism to neighbouring countries. How could people be expected to forget that the generous US supply of arms to Pakistan (meant to be used against Russia when Afghanistan was under Russian occupation) was diverted without any qualms for use in Pakistan’s proxy war against India in Jammu & Kashmir? A new global resolve has become imperative at this point because of the complex problem that the world faces with the IS choosing hitherto unpicked targets in Europe and because there are reasons to fear that the US may not be ruthless against global terrorism during the regime of Barack Obama. Strategies of tackling terrorism must undergo a sea change because the locations of terrorist attacks on soft targets have changed from streets and open spaces to restaurants, bars and concert halls. There are no holds barred any more for terrorists.