Monaco: In a veiled attack on Pakistan, India has said nations must refrain from hosting and encouraging terror activities and ensure that their territories are not used for setting up terrorist training camps.
Addressing the 83rd General Assembly of Interpol here yesterday, Home Minister Rajnath Singh also said lifting banking secrecy and corporate veil in corruption and terrorist-related cases would go a long way in bringing the criminals to book.
"States must refrain from organising, instigating, facilitating, participating in, financing, encouraging or tolerating terrorist activities," he said.
The Home Minister said countries must take appropriate measures to ensure that their territories are not used for setting up terrorist infrastructures or training camps. Singh called on governments across the globe to collectively address the issue of safe havens for organised criminal and terrorist groups.
"Governments across the world have to recognise the need to collectively address the issue of safe havens for organised criminal and terrorist groups, their illicit operations, and their tainted money," he said.
The Home Minister recollected that the horrific event of 9/11 terrorist attacks in New York, brought home to the western world its devastating consequences and changed the world profoundly thereafter.
"The outlook of developed nations towards terrorist groups changed drastically and they woke up to the threat with which, India is grappling with since early 1980s. India believes that there is need for far greater vigilance and stricter provisions so as to make off-shore jurisdiction more transparent," he said.
Rajnath's comments came a day after the Pentagon told the US Congress that Pakistan is using militant groups as proxies to counter the superior Indian military.
"Afghan-and Indian-focused militants continue to operate from Pakistan territory to the detriment of Afghan and regional stability. Pakistan uses these proxy forces to hedge against the loss of influence in Afghanistan and to counter India's superior military," the Pentagon said in its latest six-monthly report.
The Home Minister recalled that Prime Minister Narendra Modi emphatically conveyed at the recent BRICS Summit that "We must put collective pressure on States to deny sanctuaries and support to terrorists".
Singh said more often than in the past, criminal organisations are sharing information, services, resources, and market access according to the principle of comparative advantage. He said by doing so, they can reduce their risks and costs and are able to exploit illicit criminal opportunities.
Thus, there exist highly efficient networks, capable of destabilising civilised nations and forcing weak governments to toe their line.
"The world is also witnessing some cataclysmic changes as lethal non-state actors fired by toxic ideology turning into State themselves, he said.
The Home Minister said rise of social networks has increased the diffusion of private data users that can be potentially stolen and misused. Women and children are equally vulnerable in cyberspace as in the real world, if not more.
"In recent years, the internet and social media are being increasingly used to instigate communal riots to destabilise the state," he said.
The Minister called upon each one of them to take a pledge to strengthen the strategy relating to cyber-crime on this momentous occasion of the centenary year of the Interpol.
