UNSC counter-terrorism meet: Jaishankar flags ‘nefarious’ use of drones, potent instruments in toolkit of terrorists and militant groups

Jaishankar also highlighted terrorist groups and organized criminal networks using unmanned aerial systems like drones for weapons delivery and attacks

PGurus Newsdesk

October 29, 2022

Jaishankar also highlighted terrorist groups and organized criminal networks using unmanned aerial systems like drones for weapons delivery and attacks

Jaishankar at top UN counter-terror meet: “Threat of terrorism is growing…”

At a special meeting of the UNSC’s Counter-Terrorism Committee External Affairs Minister S Jaishankar today said the internet and social media platforms have turned into “potent instruments in the toolkit of terrorists and militant groups” for spreading propaganda, radicalization, and conspiracy theories aimed at destabilizing societies.

Jaishankar said technologies like virtual private networks, encrypted message services, and blockchain have also thrown up new challenges for governments and regulatory bodies.

In his keynote address, Jaishankar took a fresh jibe at Pakistan. He pointed out the manner in which terrorists are misusing new technologies and posing new challenges for governments across the world. For instance, he flagged that drones from Pakistan are used for the cross-border trafficking of weapons and drugs in India.

“These very technologies have thrown up new challenges for governments and regulatory bodies due to their potential vulnerability for misuse by non-state actors given the very nature of some of these technologies and the nascent regulatory environment. In recent years, terrorist groups that ideological fellow travelers particularly in open and liberal societies and lone wolf attackers have significantly enhanced capabilities by gaining access to these technologies. They use technology and money and most importantly the ethos of an open society to attack freedom, tolerance, and progress,” he observed.

S Jaishankar remarked, “Terrorism remains one of the gravest threats to humanity. The UNSC in the past two decades has evolved an important architecture built primarily around the counter-terrorism sanctions regime to combat this menace. This has been very effective in putting those countries on notice that had turned terrorism into a state-funded enterprise. Despite this, the threat of terrorism is only growing and expanding particularly in Asia and Africa as successive reports of the 1267 Sanctions Committee have highlighted.”

“The Council is holding this special meeting of its Counter-Terrorism Committee in India is also a product of the fact that counter-terrorism has become one of the top priorities during our ongoing tenure in the Security Council,” he added.

Jaishankar also highlighted terrorist groups and organized criminal networks using unmanned aerial systems like drones for weapons delivery and attacks.

Members of the international community gathered for the second day of the meeting of the UN Security Council’s Counter-Terrorism Committee.

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