Pakistan has achieved major gains against terrorism: Maleeha

NEW YORK: Pakistan said at the UN that the country had achieved major gains in countering terrorism but more international cooperation is needed to eliminate the scourge across the world.

Pakistan’s Ambassador to the UN Maleeha Lodhi said that these gains had come at a high human and financial price but this had not diminished Pakistan’s resolve to fight on. She said this while speaking in the UN General Assembly High-Level Conference of heads of Counter Terrorism agencies, says a press release.

In this regard she pointed to the fact that the largest anti-terrorism operation anywhere in the world has been carried out by Pakistan, deploying over 200,000 of its forces. But, she asserted, Pakistan’s Counter Terrorism strategy has involved more than military means.

Ambassador Lodhi told the world body that as no country can fight this menace alone, sustainability of gains in the fight against terror largely depends upon strengthening regional and international cooperation.

She said that Pakistan took the lead in the region, and organised the first Islamabad International Counter Terrorism Forum in April this year.

“Terrorism and extremism remain among today’s biggest security challenges, feeding off instability in many parts of the world and also fuelling it”, Ambassador Lodhi said and added that the threats posed by terrorist groups defy national borders, and thus represent a global security challenge which no country can tackle on its own.

The spread and easy access to information technology, she said, has given further impetus to connections between transnational terrorist organisations which are becoming more sophisticated in their operations.

“Acting as a borderless force terrorist groups freely operate in the cyber domain and disseminate their toxic message to promote online recruitment, raise funds and even plan and launch attacks”, she added.

She underscored the need to have a secure and sustainable information and coordination mechanism in the field of Cyber Space to prevent its abuse.

Emphasizing the need for effective cooperation between national, regional and international actors to frame a coordinated response, the Pakistani envoy said, “The challenges we face today will continue to evolve in new and unpredictable ways. We need to work together and in unison on our capacity to evolve and adapt to meet them”.