HAMBURG: Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi hit out at Pakistan at the G-20 summit on Friday as he named terror groups LeT and JeM along with global scourges IS and Boko Haram to drive home the point that some countries use terrorism as a tool and that the outfits are united by a common ideology despite different labels.
Looking to take the lead on terrorism, Modi also presented an 11-point action agenda for fighting the global menace as he made a clear reference to Pakistan when he said, “some nations are using terrorism for achieving political goals”. Modi named Lashkar and Jaish in the same vein as IS, al-Qaeda and Boko Haram. “Their only ideology is to spread hatred and commit massacres,” he added. He said all these groups had the same basic ideology even if they went by different names. Modi emphasised that nations today are not as well networked as terrorists are. The G-20 leaders’ statement reflected the “safe havens” concern to some extent. “There should be no `safe spaces’ for terrorist financing anywhere in the world…In order to eliminate all such `safe spaces’, we commit to intensify capacity building and technical assistance, especially in relation to terrorist financing hot spots,” it said. The statement stressed the resolve to make the international financial system “entirely hostile” to terror financing. The statement also paid attention to the Islamic State-inspired attacks that use heavy vehicles and knives to kill civilians. “Low cost attacks by small cells and individuals funded by small amounts of money transferred through a wide range of payment means are an increasing challenge. We call on the private sector to continue to strengthen their efforts to identify and tackle terrorism financing,” it said. In the presence of leaders like US President Donald Trump, Russian President Vladimir Putin and Chinese President Xi Jinping, Modi regretted that the international response to terrorism had been weak and said more cooperation is needed to fight the menace. Modi gave an 11-point Action Agenda suggesting exchange of lists of terrorists among G-20 nations, easing and expediting of legal processes like extradition and
concrete steps to choke funds and weapon supply to the terrorists.
