Counter-terrorism meet for regional cooperation

Police officials, prosecutors and judges of South Asian region, including Pakistan, and representatives from Interpol on Tuesday came on one platform to develop a “network” of common enterprise to combat terrorism in this part of the continent.

The three-day workshop jointly hosted by the Central Government and United National Counter-Terrorism Committee Executive Directorate (CTED) will focus on borderless cooperation to counter global terrorism “and learn from each other’s experience”.

Alistair Millar, Director, Centre on Global Counterterrorism Cooperation said, “the idea is that all the cops, prosecutors and judges exchange views and go back, tell their governments on what more can be done towards countering terrorism.” He said “we should learn from our setbacks too”.

This is the 5th such workshop in New Delhi, the others being held in Bangladesh, Indonesia, Maldives and Bhutan. The idea is to have such workshops every six months in each of the SAARC countries.

The officials from Afgha­nistan, Bangladesh, Bhutan, Nepal, India, Maldives , Sri Lanka and Pakistan are participating in the workshop.

Those who attended the inaugural function included Mike Smith, Executive Director, CTED, Freddy Svane, Ambassador, Embassy of Denmark, Asoke Mukerjee, Additional Secretary, Ministry of External Affairs and Sunjoy Joshi, Director, Observer Research Foundation (ORF).

Strategising made easy

Mukerjee said CTED’s ongoing initiative to bring together practitioners from the region through a series of workshops is helpful to strategise counter-terror measures.

The workshop, he said, would devise practical ways for police officers, prosecutors and judges to facilitate international cooperation on counter-terrorism cases.

Joshi said there is constant transformation and transmutation of forms of global terrorism.