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Indo-UK JWG meet on terrorism |
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The first ever meeting of the Indo-British Joint Working Group indicated close identity of views between the two sides on the dimensions of the problem of international terrorism and the need to combat it. At its meeting in New Delhi on Jan. 22 London pledged support to the draft convention on international terrorism supported by India at last year’s UN General Assembly. The two sides also supported sanctions relating to arms supply against the Taliban regime in Afghanistan.
The British side was led by William Ehrman, Director of International Security in the Foreign Office while the Indian team was headed by Ms Bhaswati Mukherjee, Joint Secretary [West Europe].
Apart from the JWG on international terrorism, Mr. Ehrman also led the British delegation to the second round of Indo-UK discussions on issues related to disarmament and non-proliferation.
India has similar JWG with the US and Russia. The decision to set up the JWG with Britain was taken during Home minister Advani’s visit to Britain last summer. The step was based on the desire expressed by the two sides to address “shared concerns on international terrorism and its inter-linkiages and drug trafficking”. The Indo-UK JWG, an inter-ministerial group of officials from the two countries, is significant given the fact that many pro-Pak Jihadi groups are based in Britain and that they are engaged in either training or despatching to Kashmir to wage attacks against the security forces in the name of the holy war or Jehad. Activities of the UK-based anti-Indian extremist groups are believed to have figured at the JWG meting at which India demanded action against such groups, the identity of many of whom is already known to the British Government.
An investigation in London reveals that around 900 young British Muslims leave Britain each year to take part in the so-called jihad in Kashmir. Indian estimates are that 1800 Britons are travelling each year to Kashmir. About ten per cent of those stay and fight, the rest take their political and religious indoctrination and bring it back to their own communities, mostly for fund-raising and recruitment. Once they arrive in Pakistan, they are recruited in mosques, book shops and community meetings and go to mountain camps on the Pakistan border to be trained for three months before entering the fight against India. The SUNDAY TIMES of Britain who interviewed three British Muslims who received training in camps in Pakistan, quoted one of them as saying that he thinks that “for any Muslim, the most eagerly awaited opportunity is to kill the enemy. The Indian soldiers do not deserve any mercy and I am happy to say that I took part in wiping them out.”
SUNDAY TIMES said, India was “so angry” about the growing activities of UK-based extremists that “a private meeting has been called in the Indian capital with representatives of Foreign Office and MI5, the British intelligence service.”
India raised this issue at the just-ended JWG meeting in the hope that with the new Terrorism Law coming to effect in Britain next month [February], Britain will no longer find any excuse like that they are not breaking any British law, used in the past for not taking action against them. The new Terrorism Act is already causing panic among organisations and individuals in Britain who support and participate in such activities. The new law would give the police and the Home Office sweeping powers to crack down on groups which train activists or raise funds for terrorist activities aimed at foreign countries. At present, training and fund-raising is not an offence, with the result that extremist groups have been operating with impunity.
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