Afghan President Ashraf Ghani calls for coordinated response system to fight terror

NEW DELHI: Faced with the challenge of ridding Afghanistan from shadow of terror, its President Ashraf Ghani today strongly called for a coordinated response system by countries of the region, saying terrorist groups are spreading wings very rapidly, focusing on brutality to awe the people.

He said an "unprecedented" amount of finance is being made available to the "new ecology of terror" which was threatening the entire South Asian region and its economy.

Delivering a lecture at Indian Council of World Affairs, Ghani said terror was becoming a "system" and the main challenge was lack of coordination among the states to deal with the menace.

"In Afghanistan, we are today fighting on behalf of every one of our neighbours -- from India to Russia. This fundamental challenge asks the state system to respond coherently together and organically.

"The main threat is not from the phenomena, the ecology of terror. The main threat is lack of coordination among the states," he said emphasising on having a coordinated approach in dealing with the challenge.

Ghani, who held wide-ranging talks with Prime Minister Narendra Modi earlier in the day, said any state-sponsorship of the terror networks or their accommodation threatened the entire region. He, however, did not take name of any country.

"An unprecedented amount of finance is being made available to this new ecology. It is becoming very brutal and focused on brutality in order to awe the population. It is becoming networked at a very rapid rate," he said.

The Afghan President said all the countries must join hands to defeat the menace and there should not be any competition in dealing with it.

"There is no advantage in competition between and among the states when it comes to (dealing with) ecology of terror," Ghani, who had become President of Afghanistan after a bitter Presidential election, said.