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New York: The Indian ambassador to the United Nations Nirupam Sen has said a determined action is needed to root out terrorist networks and deter regimes from encouraging and harbouring armed extremists.
Speaking at the UN General Assembly on Friday, Sen termed terrorism as a "pervasive and insidious" threat to global security and core values of the UN.
The Ambassador urged the world to act as one in denying terrorists, their ideologues and financiers, access to arms, funds and means of transportation.
Regarding the measures taken by New Delhi, Sen said India has adhered to existing regulatory framework governing controls over weapons of mass destruction and their means of delivery.
"It has strengthened these obligations by enacting Weapons of Mass Destruction and their Delivery System (Prohibition of Unlawful Activities) Act 2005," he said, an "overarching and integrated legislation" prohibiting terrorist activities.
Sen recommended to the member countries the early adoption of the Comprehensive Convention Against International Terrorism to reinvigorate multi-lateral and collective dimensions of counter-terrorism efforts.
Unjustifiable act
Failure of member states to reach an agreement on the definition of the terrorism is holding up the Convention. Some had sought to exclude liberation movements from the definition.
Sen reiterated India's position that terrorism, in all its forms and manifestations, irrespective of its motivation, is a "criminal and unjustifiable" act and "no cause, no matter how just, can excuse terrorism."
Referring to measures India is taking to meet the threat, he said it is utilising all available tools within the arsenal of a democratic nation.
India, he said, has established an extensive legal framework for tracking terrorism which criminalises raising funds for terrorist activities, holding of proceeds of terrorism, harbouring terrorists, as well as unauthorised possession of any bomb, dynamite or hazardous explosive substance or lethal weapon or substance capable of mass destruction.
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