India Cautions against Segmented Approach in Fight on Terror: Reports

Broaching the recent plot by a Pakistani-origin man to blow up the Times Square in New York at his meeting with US secretary of State Hillary Clinton in Washington Thursday External Affairs Minister SM Krishna highlighted the need to target terror in India’s neighbourhood, reported CNN IBN.

According to the report, Krishna, who met Secretary Clinton for the first India-US Strategic Dialogue said a segmented approach against terror will not work in the region.

“We agreed that terrorism and groups operate as a syndicate leveraging each-others strengths and converging together on motivation and targets. Hence a segmented approach in our neighbourhood will not succeed,” Minister Krishna was quoted as saying.

Secretary Clinton too underlined the need to root terrorists out of their safe havens in Pakistan, the report added.

“They have to be rooted out of safe havens in Pakistan where they are a grave threat to the Government of Pakistan. They are a transnational threat,” she said.

While Krishna cautioned against engaging with any group that was involved in terror-related activities Secretary Clinton said: “We think there is a basis for reintegrating Taliban fighters back into the society. But we believe that no one should be brought back into the society without renouncing violence, without renouncing al Qaeda, and there is no military solution to most conflicts.”

“We need to avoid choices that lead to dark alleys of 1990s and need to safeguard progress. We are going to stay in Afghanistan to defeat these terrorist machinations,” iterated Krishna.

There was no mention of Lashkar-e-Toiba operative and Mumbai terror attack accused David Coleman Headley at the end of the dialogue, said the report.