Securing Asia Counter Terror and Homeland Security Summit – Day 2
Dr Mukul Sangma, Chief Minister of Meghalaya, India, on the terrorist threats facing India
Dr Mukul Sangma, Chief Minister of Meghalaya, India, spoke in depth about the types of terrorist threats facing India, and the challenges to peace and development in the region thus created. This goes hand in hand with the adjacent problems from drug trafficking within the ‘Golden Crescent’ and ‘Golden Triangle’ in India’s neighbourhood, which generates additional funds for terrorist activities.
He succinctly outlined the failure of the democratic process as bearing some responsibility for increasing the local population’s vulnerability to extreme ideologies, and stressed the strain on government finances diverted from economic development efforts to deal with terrorist threats.
Dr Sangma explained the Indian Federal and State responses to the terror threats saying they “have been taking steps to reduce ethnic and social inequalities, disparities in opportunities, and for creating appropriate machinery for the redressal of public grievances, and to minimise as far as possible the root causes of militancy and strife.” A comprehensive confrontation of security problems at all levels is essential, he emphasized.
The need to improve intelligence and counter terrorism capabilities through the modernisation and improvement of the security apparatus and to protect the country’s critical infrastructure was central to his speech.
At the Securing Asia conference, which was attended by a strong component of industry and trade specialists, he emphasized the large demand for equipment, weaponry and security technology, and the opportunities thus available across various sectors including Police, para-military forces, and border, aviation and maritime forces.
Dr Sangma specifically addressed the technology requirements of counter insurgency operations in India’s north-east region, an area which is particularly challenging in terms of rough forested terrain, and torrential rivers, and limited communications.’ Appropriate and customised technologies’ are therefore required to ‘help save the lives of our security personnel’ as well as of citizens.
He concluded by highlighting that “…the scourge of terrorism affecting one country should not be seen as the private grief of that country alone. The time has come for all nations to work together and leverage every possible resource at their command to effectively deal with this global menace.”
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