Threat from social media and Internet are far more lethal than we think, Amb Pankaj Saran, Deputy National Security Adviser said on Tuesday, calling for greater networking among the security agencies of BIMSTEC countries.
The BIMSTEC regional grouping was set up in 1997 and includes India, Bangladesh, Bhutan, Myanmar, Nepal, Sri Lanka and Thailand.
“The poison of radicalisation and extremism is today able to travel very fast through the Internet and cyber medium from the new fountainhead that has been created in the world which is loosely centered around the area of Syria, Iraq and Libya and is travelling towards our region through Afghanistan and it is posing serious challenges to our security,” Mr. Saran said.
He was addressing the BIMSTEC think tank dialogue on regional security organised by the Vivekananda International Foundation.
Mr. Saran observed that the evolution of the grouping has been slow but “deliberate.”
The first BIMSTEC summit was held in 2004 and the secretariat was established in Dhaka in 2014.
Addressing the gathering, Sumith Nakandala, Additional Secretary in Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Sri Lanka stressed on the need for a collective fight against terrorism and referred to the BIMSTEC convention on combating international terrorism.
“It has taken considerable time and effort for member states to not only sign but also to ratify. Unless you ratify the convention there won’t be any legal effect,” he stated.
He also called for early conclusion of two other conventions on extradition and transfer of sentenced persons.
