COX'S BAZAR (Bangladesh) " Stressing the need for joint initiatives for combating trends of terrorism and violence in the region, Bangladesh Information Minister Abul Kalam Azad said that it was essential to resolve the political, social and economic issues confronting the South Asian countries. "Let's join hands for arresting the trends of terrorism and violence," Abdul Kalam Azad remarked in his key address before the inaugural session of South Asia Free Media Association (SAFMA) at Cox's Bazaar, the beach side town of Bangladesh, on Tuesday morning. The two-day VII SAFMA conference is being attended by more than 150 delegates from all the SAARC countries. Besides transfer of Presidency from Sri Lanka to Bangladesh, the conference aimed at discussing the existing threats and challenges to media and ways and means for their resolution. Similarly, the participants also discussed the status of democracy in South Asian region highlighting the responsibilities of media for strengthening the democratic process in this respect. Bangladesh Information Minister Abdul Kalam Azad welcomed the delegates from all over the region and assured them of his government's support to ensure due press freedom and protect the lives and properties of the media men. In this connection, he also drew the attention of the participants towards the faith of Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina Wajid in the press freedom and her government's endeavour in strengthening and stabilizing the media. However, the Bangladesh Information Minister showed his great concern over the increasing trends of violence and terrorism in the region. In particular he said that they were grieved over the threats to media people. He was of the view that terrorism was not an issue before a single country but it could be considered a joint issue confronting the South Asian countries. In this respect, he suggested the establishment of a "Joint Task Force" for arresting the trends of terrorism and violence. Reminding about the policies of Bangladesh PM Hasina Wajid for jointly countering the trends of terrorism, Abul Kalam Azad believed that it was also essential to get rid of other socio-economic and political issues. He said that peace was essential not only for getting the goals of economic prosperity but also for strengthening the democratic institutions. On behalf of SAFMA, new President Reaz Ud Din and SAFMA Bangladesh Zahid Uz Zaman Faroqui welcomed the delegates. Imtiaz Alam SAFMA Secretary General highlighted the objectives of the conference. Prof Rehman Sobhan, a senior intellectual and expert made a detailed presentation regarding the challenges to media and democracy in the region. The participants also debated upon Dr Ayesha Jalal's elaborate speech on "Democracy and authoritarianism." It merits mentioning here that 2008 proved to be the most "dangerous turf" for the media when more than one dozen media men from South Asian region were killed. Majority of them belonged to Pakistan and Nepal, while lives of most of the media people are under threat in Pakistan's troubled north-western regions along the borders with Afghanistan.