NEW DELHI: Al-Qaida’s links with United Nations Security Council (UNSC)-proscribed Pakistan-based terrorist organisations like Laskhar-e-Taiba (LeT) and Jaish-e-Mohammad (JeM) has continued to strengthen, said India’s permanent representative to the UN, T S Tirumurti. He said this at the International Counter-Terrorism Conference, organised by the Global Counter-Terrorism Council.
“The Islamic State (ISIS) has changed its modus operandi, with its core focus now on regaining ground in Syria and Iraq. Its regional affiliates are strengthening their expansion, especially in Africa and Asia,’’ Tirumurti pointed out.
Al-Qaida remains a major threat and recent developments in Afghanistan have served to re-energise them. Tirumurti pointed out that in the global counter-terrorism domain, the 9/11 attacks in the US in 2001 had proved a turning point in our approach towards terrorism. “The September 11 attacks highlighted that the threat of terrorism is grave and universal and can only be defeated by the collective efforts of all UN member states,’’ he said, adding that terrorism in one place can directly impact another.
“The era of classifying terrorists as ‘your terrorist’ and ‘my terrorist’ was over. Terrorism in all its forms and manifestations is to be condemned and there cannot be any exception or justification for any act of terrorism.”