COMMENT: Terrorism and SAARC —Dr Rashid Ahmad Khan

Terrorism has been identified as the most serious challenge facing the countries of South Asia and its elimination is now top priority, but SAARC still lacks a common counter-terrorism strategy

Pakistan was host to the SAARC interior ministers’ conference in Islamabad last week. The conference is one of the regional mechanisms established by SAARC to fight against terrorism in South Asia through the cooperative efforts of its member countries. The hallmark of the conference was the presence of Indian Home Minister P Chidambaram, who was the first senior Indian union minister to visit Pakistan since the Mumbai terror attacks in November 2008. He also met separately with Pakistan’s Interior Minister Rehman Malik to discuss prospects of cooperation in counter-terrorism between the two countries. Although the agenda of the conference included preventing human trafficking, visa issues, law enforcement, smuggling of narcotics, drugs and psychotropic substances, cooperation in police matters and information sharing mechanisms, the discussions on preparing a common counter-terrorism strategy for the SAARC region dominated its deliberations. From the declaration issued on the conclusion of the conference, however, it appears that there was little progress among the seven participating ministers towards reaching an agreement on the contours of a common counter-terrorism strategy. According to some analysts, the conference could not take any concrete step in the direction of a common counter-terrorism strategy and the participating member countries remained stuck in their old positions on the issue of fighting terrorism.

This is unfortunate in view of the fact that the region continues to witness a rising wave of terrorism with a consequent loss of human life and extensive damage to property. How serious the threat of terrorism is in South Asia is evident from the recently announced statistics on terrorist incidents in Pakistan. According to official estimates, 1,835 persons lost their lives and 5,194 suffered injuries in 1,906 terror attacks in the country during 2009-10. The attacks cost the economy about 6 percent of GDP. The National Assembly was recently told that over the last year, 180 incidents of suicide bombings were reported from different parts of the country. Referring to the economic impact of these terrorist incidents, the federal government admitted before lawmakers that the government had not been able to provide employment to the people largely because of this upsurge in terrorism.

The declaration also called terrorism “the biggest challenge facing the region”, and admitted that terrorism posed a serious threat to peace and security in the region, undermining harmony, friendly and good neighbourly relations and cooperation among the countries of the region. There were also pledges for multilateral cooperation to fight terrorism. The outcome of the conference included an agreement to consider a proposal presented by Pakistan to create an institution similar to Interpol. But there was no agreement on an extradition treaty among the SAARC countries — a proposal strongly favoured by India. The meeting discussed ways and means to strengthen police cooperation and step up real time intelligence sharing and other means to combat terrorism. However, the conference failed to suggest a mechanism through which police cooperation could be strengthened. Similarly, the conference did not approve the proposal made by the prime minister of Bangladesh to set up a SAARC Anti-Terrorism Task Force. Sri Lanka had presented a proposal on the formation of SAARC Police to help detect trans-national crimes, control terrorism and arrest criminals. At the start of the conference, the member countries exchanged lists of banned organisations and appraised each other of steps taken to root out terrorism and militancy in their countries. Pakistan presented a list containing the names of 21 organisations that have been banned in the country.

Although SAARC was formed primarily to promote regional cooperation among the member countries for economic development and trade, it has also been seized with the challenge of terrorism from the very beginning. In order to meet this challenge, SAARC undertook a number of initiatives. Only two years after its formation in 1985, SAARC approved the ‘SAARC Regional Convention on Suppression of Terrorism’, in 1987. The Regional Convention on Suppression of Terrorism and Additional Protocol on Terrorism now constitutes a single document under which the member countries have undertaken to initiate, within their national legal frameworks, certain measures to combat terrorism by suppressing and eradicating the financing of terrorism, seizing and confiscating of funds and other assets, preventing money laundering, cooperation on immigration and customs control, cooperation among law enforcing agencies, providing mutual legal assistance and holding consultations among them. The 15th summit, held in Colombo in 2008, pledged to fight terrorism as its priority number one. During this summit, the member countries signed a legal pact to combat terrorism.

Despite the existence of a number of mechanisms on bilateral and multilateral levels, the eight member states of SAARC have not been able to evolve a coordinated and comprehensive approach towards terrorism. Terrorism has been identified as the most serious challenge facing the countries of South Asia and its elimination is now top priority, but SAARC still lacks a common counter-terrorism strategy. Various proposals such as the establishment of SAARC Police and SAARC Anti-Terrorism Task Force have failed to receive consensus support. There are two main reasons for a lack of progress in this direction. One, terrorism is a political issue with conflicting national and regional perspectives. Each member country, while agreeing to extend cooperation to others in the fight against terrorism, is prepared to do so, as the declaration issued on the conclusion of the Interior minister’s conference in Islamabad says, “within the purview of national laws and procedures and international commitments and following the principle of non-interference and non-intervention in each other’s affairs.” This clearly means that cooperation against terrorism within the SAARC region is closely linked to the domestic political dynamics of the member countries and regional environment in which they operate as sovereign entities.

Two, the mistrust between India and Pakistan impedes any meaningful progress towards a common counter-terrorism strategy. The failure of the two countries to make any tangible move on close cooperation against terrorism in the Islamabad meeting illustrates the dilemma facing SAARC in countering terrorism. Despite the pledge to fight terrorism jointly, Indian dissatisfaction at the Pakistani handling of the Mumbai terror suspects still persists.

There is no doubt that terrorism is being viewed with growing concern at the SAARC level. There are also strong indications that member states recognise the need to fight this menace jointly. A number of bilateral and multilateral mechanisms have also been put in place to promote cooperation against terrorism. But SAARC is still far away from evolving a common counter-terrorism strategy. It would be better for the member countries to agree, keeping aside their political differences, on a common counter-terrorism strategy as any delay will only embolden the terrorists to cause greater loss to human life and property.

The writer is a professor of International Relations at Sargodha University. He can be reached at rashid_khan192@yahoo.com