India calls for concluding convention on international terrorism

India has called on the global community to accelerate efforts for an expeditious conclusion of a Comprehensive Convention on International Terrorism (CCIT), an official statement said here on Tuesday.

Law and Justice Minister D.V. Sadananda Gowda said that terrorism had emerged as the most serious scourge of our times and the international community must have a policy of zero tolerance towards it and all those who aid and abet terrorist acts and provide safe havens to their perpetrators.

Addressing the 13th UN Congress on Crime Prevention and Criminal Justice (UNCCPCJ) in Doha on Monday, he said India had presented a draft comprehensive convention for the purpose at the United Nations as far back as in 1996 and has been constructively engaged with the international community for its finalization.

Gowda said money laundering and terror financing were also a matters of global concern.

With the increased globalization and emergence of new technologies, crime prevention and criminal justice have acquired transnational dimensions, necessitating greater cooperation among nations, he told the UNCCPCJ.

The time has come to prosecute perpetrators of any form of cyber crime in a timely and effective manner to make cyber space secure for people in terms of improved service delivery, crim e prevention and detection and ease of doing business, he said.

Gowda is leading a eight-member Indian delegation to the meet which was inaugurated by Qatar's Emir Sheikh Tamim bin Hamad Al Thani.