NEW DELHI - President Pratibha Patil has said that the scale and nature of terrorist onslaughts were a grim reminder of the fact that it has assumed a lethal global reach and all States were potentially vulnerable to it.

President Patil was addressing the two-day International Conference of Jurists on Terrorism here on Saturday, hosted to create a safe, secure and prosperous world for the present generation and for posterity, free from terrorism.

“Terrorism violates everything that a civilized society stands for. Characterized by irrational violence and horrific destruction, terror strikes have without impunity harmed innocent civilians. The scale and nature of terrorist onslaughts are a grim reminder that it has assumed a lethal global reach and all States, whether small or large, are potentially vulnerable,” said President Pratibha Patil before the distinguished audience in the capital.

The prime focus of the conference is to touch the legal responses to the problem of cross-border terrorism. The jurists from many nations made a common cause on how to fight terrorism.

Chief Justice of Singapore, Chan Sek Keong, Judge, International Court of Justice Awn S. Al-Khasawneh, Union Minister for Law and Justice, M Veerappa Moily, were among the few speakers who graced the event with their presence.

The participants spoke about growing terrorist activities in the world and gave constructive suggestion that terrorist attacks should be treated as a unique form of ‘armed conflict’, wherein obligations can be placed on all nations to collaborate in the investigation and prosecution of persons responsible for terrorist attacks.

This called for a blurring of the distinction between the international and domestic nature of armed conflict when it comes to terrorist attacks.

Members at the conference also pledged themselves to a policy of zero-tolerance towards terrorism, from whatever source it originates, wherever it strikes and whosoever it chooses as target. (ANI)