Ambassador Akbaruddin welcomes proposed UN Office of Counter Terrorism
Syed Akbaruddin, Permanent Representative of India at the United Nations General Assembly, welcomed United Nation’s efforts to initiate Counter Terrorism (CT) office at the UN. Ambassador Akbaruddin was speaking at an informal meeting by the UN to assist member states to implement United Nations Global Counter-Terrorism Strategy in New York, on Wednesday.
“India welcomes the initiative and fully supports the proposal for creation of the Office of CT. We will extend all possible support in talking the proposal to its fruition,” Akbaruddin said.
He said such efforts call for a multilateral action and united cooperation. Akbaruddin said that every day one hears terrorist-related disturbances. “It is variously estimated that since the beginning of 2017, there have been 150 cases of terrorist violence with more than a 1000 death,” he added.
Akbaruddin quoted Bill Gates on the dangers of bio-terrorism. “If I may use his words, “the next epidemic could originate on the computer screen of a terrorist, intent on using genetic engineering to create a synthetic version of a small virus or a super contagious and deadly strain of flu”. According to Gates, epidemiologists say that a fast moving air borne pathogens could kill more than 30 million people in less than a year,” he said.