Participants at the Sixth Ministerial Conference of the Heart of Asia on Sunday adopted the “Amristar Declaration”, recognising terrorism as “the biggest threat to peace” in the South Asia region. The declaration laid emphasis on countries cooperating to “end all forms of terrorism”, calling for the “dismantling of terrorist safe havens” in the region and “disrupting all financial and logistical support for terrorism”.
The declaration named several militant groups as major points of concern for stability in the region, including the Pakistan-based Lashkar-e-Taiba and Jaish-e-Muhammad, as well as the Al Qaeda and the Islamic State group. “We recognise the necessity of taking serious measures to address recruitment of youth to extremist and terrorist networks. We realise radicalisation of youth can only be prevented by effective de-radicalisation strategies involving all Heart of Asia countries.” The Heart of Asia-Istanbul Process includes India, Pakistan, Afghanistan, China, and Saudi Arabia.
Earlier in the day, in a veiled attack on Pakistan, Prime Minister Narendra Modi had called for action against those who support and finance terror in the South Asia region. Modi had said the major threats to Afghanistan’s peace and prosperity are terrorism and externally induced instability. He said that support for peace in Afghanistan is not enough. “It must be backed by resolute action. Not just forces of terrorism, but also against those who support, shelter, train and finance them,” Modi said.
The Prime Minister also called for an Afghan-led, Afghan-owned and Afghan-controlled peace process to bring stability to the country. Modi said there was a need to reflect on what else must be done and what must be avoided in Afghanistan so that its citizens can sustain peace and economic growth, reported PTI.
Pakistan Prime Minister Foreign Affairs Adviser Sartaj Aziz, along with 30 representatives of various countries were also present at the conference, which was held in Amritsar. Speaking at the same conference earlier in the day, Afghanistan President Ashraf Ghani had accused Pakistan of providing “sanctuary to terrorists”. “As a Taliban figure said recently, if they had no sanctuary in Pakistan, they wouldn’t last a month,” Ghani said.
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