Rehman Malik delivers lecture at Oxford University

Rehman Malik delivers lecture at Oxford University, urges world community for common counter terrorism strategy

London: Former Interior Minister and Chairman Senate Standing Committee on Interior Senator A. Rehman Malik delivered a conference entitled “The growing threat of Global Terrorism” at Trinity College, Oxford University. He was invited by Mustafaen Kamal, President Oxford Majlis Society on behalf of the Oxford Union.

The lecture was attended by a large number of international students representing seven different Oxford Unions, faculty members, local senior politicians and journalists.

He presented Pakistan’s narrative on war on terror and counted the sufferings of Pakistan because of terrorism and war on terror. Senator Rehman Malik is the only Pakistani after Benazir Bhutto to address this prestigious forum. The soft launching ceremony of Senator Rehman Malik’s book “Daesh – Rising Monster Worldwide” also held at end of the lecture and number of his first book “Modi’s War Doctrine” was presented to the students, faculty members, journalists and other participants with author signature.

In his opening remarks Senator Rehman Malik said that it is an honor to be at the Oxford Majlis Society which has 122 years history of South Asian, one of the most respected associations of the oldest, highly valued University in the world. He said that founded as a debating society in 1896, the Oxford Majlis Society has given charismatic leaders to the South Asia like Shaheed Liaquat Ali Khan, Shaheed Zulfiqar Ali Bhutto and Shaheed Mohtarma Benazir Bhutto and others.

He said “I must appreciate and thank the Oxford Union for organizing this public debate on a highly important subject of “Terrorism”. I believe it will help to strengthen our collective efforts to combat terrorism in all its forms as today one of the gravest threats facing our world is Terrorism.”

Senator Rehman Malik stressed that the today we are living in a world where the threat perception with different dimensions is increasing day by day and the international community has so far failed to come up with collective response to these growing serious threats.

He said that today, the world is less peaceful than the past and becoming more dangerous with every passing day adding that we see every day some incident of violation happening somewhere in the world.

He said that it is unfortunate that terrorism is now being used to achieve political and ideological goals and the magnitude is increased and it has appeared as a monster in the form of syndicates and well organised crime. He said that it is now international fact that wars bring miseries and bread terrorism which has stood established since the end of the World War -II.

Pointing out that USSR was defeated by Jihadis in Afghanistan duly supported by CIA, Senator Rehman Malik said that it gave birth to terrorism and extremism and multiple terrorist organizations as those Jihadis were left jobless by CIA soon after USSR disintegration. He said that CIA had recruited thousands of disgruntled Muslim elements and criminals from Europe and Canada and launched them with full military training in Afghanistan via Pakistan for their own goals and objectives. Senator Malik said that he can safely claim that the birth of Taliban and Al Qaeda would have not been evolved if the USA had not left these remnants of Jihadis jobless in Afghanistan and Pakistan.

Senator Rehman Malik who is the Chairman Senate Standing Committee on Interior also said that he has named Taliban as Zaliman (The Cruel) after witnessing their brutalities and their dreadful acts of terrorism against innocent people. He added that he Afghan issue and Kashmir issue are very serious and major reason of unrest in the region and have endangered the regional and international peace.

The Former Interior Minister Senator Rehman Malik said “I remember, when I identified OBL through his links with Yousef Ramsey and knew their nefarious activities that were against Saudi Arabia and Pakistan. The potential of terrorism exists even today by associates of OBL now in the form of Daesh/ISIS and Al-Qaeda. This high level trained force of Afghan and Afro- Arab Jihadis were left alone and they lost their jobs and hence their retaliation was natural in the form consolidation of their own militant groups. This abrupt and sudden ditch by USA was not accepted by these militants and almost the entire force emerged as Taliban on both sides of Pakistan and Afghanistan. These militants were subsequently adopted by OBL for his group Al-Qaeda with the help of Ayman al-Zawahiri, the second in command of Al Qaeda.”

Senator Malik emphasized that the world leaders have now identified the common enemy –terrorists and all should move towards devising a common strategy. He said that we will not be able to counter the menace of terrorism unless international community moves with collective counter measures and common strategy. He said that he has always advocated for a common counter-terrorism strategy against terrorism since he was the Interior Minister and had urged US President George W. Bush, later President Barak Obama.

He said that it is an honour for me to have soft launch of my book “Daesh- Rising Monster worldwide” from the Oxford University today. He said in his book he has discussed the background of its creation in detail and then its growth from Iraq to entire Middle East, then Turkey and Afghanistan. He said he had pointed out three years back Daesh’s presence in South Asia and its ingress-to Sri Lanka via India as the soil of India has been used for its training and launching terrorism in Sri Lanka and in Pakistan. He said that soft target of mastermind behind terrorism are poor as we should never forget that the vast majority of terrorist attacks take place in developing countries and Muslim areas. The recent attacks in New Zealand and Sri Lanka has shaken the world, he added.

Senator A. Rehman Malik warned that it would be a mistake to assume that military operations alone will eradicate terrorism, adding that World Community needs to change the mind-set of the terrorists and potential victims among the youth. He said that is why a smart and comprehensive doable global counter-terrorism strategy is required for addressing the root causes of violent extremism.

He stressed that world powers have to withdraw their motivated regional geo and political interests and launch highly effective counter measures to stop exploitations of poor by terrorists. A strong resolve should therefore be international unity, solidarity and collaboration, said Rehman Malik. He said that existence of Daesh is more dangerous and if timely fierce actions and measures were not taken by the international community, Daesh could grow a bigger monster than al-Qaeda. He said that the emergence of Daesh has shaken the whole world and its creation in Iraq is no more a secret.