NEW DELHI: Union Home Minister Amit Shah on Friday said that the commitment to fight terrorism together, and narratives such as good terrorism, bad terrorism and small and big attacks, do not go together.
Shah said there is no good terrorism and bad terrorism and it remains the biggest threat to human rights. “We cannot consider this a political problem. We must be committed to ensuring that an effective fight against terrorism should be long-term, comprehensive and sustainable,” he asserted.
Addressing the valedictory ceremony of the 90th Annual Interpol Assembly, being attended by delegates from 195 countries, Shah said that nations across the globe need to achieve a consensus on the cross-border propagation of terrorist ideologies through online radicalisation.
Stating that ‘terrorism is the biggest violation of human rights,’ he said that it’s time that countries agree on the definition of terrorism and terrorist. Highlighting the changing trends in the commission of crime the world over, Shah said that “crime has become borderless,” and therefore countries must “think beyond conventional geographic borders.”
He added, “Given that criminal syndicates are using modern technology to collude at an international level, I see no reason why countries should not have cooperation and coordination between themselves.”
Shah said that under the existing condition, there is a “dual challenge of sorts” for law enforcement agencies. “On one hand, the law has to be enforced within the confines of the sovereignty of nations, and on the other, we have to understand the global nature of the crime, detect criminals and worry about justice as well,” he lamented.
“In the midst of these challenges, to make the work of security agencies easier, the role of Interpol is important and will become even more important in the future,” Shah said, adding “Given this situation, in order to fight terrorism, we will have to bring together all the counter-terrorism agencies of the world.”
Shah said that to tackle the new-age crime, the Indian government has taken several new initiatives, such as establishing the National Forensic Science University and linking the e-courts, e-prisons, e-forensics and e-prosecution to Crime and Criminal Tracking Network and systems.
Stating that India is committed to working with Interpol, Shah said, “The Indian government has decided to create a national database on crimes such as terrorism, narcotics and economic offences, and has established the Indian Cyber Crime Coordination Center, I4C, to combat cyber-crime in a comprehensive manner.” Shah also appealed to the Interpol “to launch an initiative to set up a permanent mechanism for a real-time information exchange line between counter-terror agencies of all member countries.”