ISLANABAD - Former interior minister Senator Rehman Malik has presented his paper and addressed Regional High-level Conference on Counter Terrorism under the theme “Countering terrorism through innovative approaches and the use of new and emerging technologies” in Minsk city of Belarus. The conference was organised by the United Nations Office of Counter- Terrorism together with Inter-Parliamentary Union (IPU) and was attended by a large number of Member States and international journalists and observers with local law enticement agencies.

Malik attended and represented Pakistan wherein he exchanged his experience on counter-terrorism strategy. He presented Pakistan’s narrative on war on terror and counted the sufferings and sacrifices of Pakistan because of terrorism and war on terror.

He also highlighted the India state sponsored terrorism in Occupied Kashmir, situation in Kashmir after revoking of Article 370 and 35A and urged the International Community and India has caged innocent Kashmiris and it is 30th day of curfew in the presence of millions of Indian regular troops. He appealed to the IPU to take notice of the worst kind of human rights violations help to stop this genocide and ethnic cleansing to reduce the majority population into Minority population.

Presents Pakistan’s narrative on war on terror

In his remarks, Malik said: “I am honoured to be speaking at this International High-level Conference on Counter Terrorism under the theme “Countering terrorism through innovative approaches and the use of new and emerging technologies.”

He said “our shared agenda” for countering terrorism through innovative approaches and the use of new and emerging technologies recognizes our common responsibility for eradicating the basis in the rise in terrorism while living within the natural boundaries of the world.

He said: “our ambitions trace all lives and we remain accountable to all people and to each other in the pursuit of our shared goal but we ensure that the rights of group or minority be fully protected.”He said that he feels it a great opportunity to develop the consensus about the prevailing trend of Terrorism in the world and building of a common will to countering it through Innovative approaches and by the sustenance of emerging Technologies.

He said: “I believe it will help to strengthen our collective efforts to combat terrorism in all its forms as today one of the gravest threats facing our world is Terrorism.”

Malik stressed that “today we are living in a world where the threat perception with different dimensions is increasing day by day and the international community has so far failed to come up with collective response to these growing serious threats of terrorism.” He said that the world was less peaceful than the past and becoming more dangerous with every passing day adding that “we see every day some incidents of violation happening somewhere in the world.”

He added that it is unfortunate that terrorism is now being used to achieve political and ideological goals and the magnitude is increased and it has appeared as a monster in the form of syndicates and well organised crime.

He said that it is now international fact that wars bring miseries and bread terrorism which has stood established since the end of the World War-II. He said that most recently his book “Daesh/ISIS; Rising Monster Worldwide” was launched that brings to light the rising phenomenon of violent extremism under the banner of DAESH/ISIS which is bent upon disrupting and destroying internal, regional and international peace and stability. Malik in his speech said that the most common causes and roots of terrorism include clashes of civilizations and globalization and at individual level the reasons for terrorism are frustration, deprivation, negative identity, conceited rage and moral disengagement.

The Senator further said that he was constrained to say that terrorism has also developed a tool of war which can be termed as an act through guerrilla or act of violence on specific targets by creating terror of terrorism and it is unfortunate that the world is developing a dangerous trend of creating and training groups to act as terrorist to achieve the specific targets against the enemy country.

He said that in short, terrorism is not legally defined in all jurisdictions; the statutes that do exist, however, generally share some common elements. Terrorism involves the use or threat of violence and seeks to create fear, not just within the direct victims but among a wide audience.

Pointing out the historical background of terrorism Malik said that USSR was defeated by Jihadis in Afghanistan duly supported by CIA and that gave birth to terrorism and extremism and multiple terrorist organisations as those Jihadis were left jobless by CIA soon after USSR disintegration. He said CIA had recruited thousands of disgruntled Muslim elements and criminals from Europe and Canada and launched them with full military training in Afghanistan via Pakistan for their own goals and objectives.

Senator Malik said that he can safely claim that the birth of Taliban and Al Qaeda would have not been evolved if the USA had not left these remnants of Jihadis jobless in Afghanistan and Pakistan.

He said that presently, the Hindu extremist Sangh Parivar and mainly its Central Organisation Rashtriya Sawayem Sevakh Sangh (RSS) are spreading violence and extremism across the India in order to eliminate the minorities residing in India particularly in Indian Occupied Kashmir and this is a new phenomenon in the form of RSS ideology based on religious extremism duly investigated by the U.S. Commission on International Religious Freedom declaring in its 2004 recommendations, proposed that India be included on the State Department’s official shortlist of the worst religious persecutors for its “egregious, systematic, and ongoing” violations of religious fights.