The proliferation of terrorism is facilitated by the same factors that enhance the world’s ability to be a productive global village. Ease of travel, access to funds and strong networking can be as much positive influences for global progress as they can be triggers for unleashing dangers that know no borders. Today, extremist groups are succeeding in infiltrating previously unimagined areas with a frequency that spells heightened alarm for the world. In this regard, the United Nations Security Council’s blacklisting of more than a dozen foreign militant extremist groups, fund-raisers and recruiters tied to militant outfits in Syria, Iraq, Afghanistan, Tunisia and Yemen, including a senior Daesh (Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant) leader, is a significant step forward in preventing a higher groundswell of global destabilisation. Ease of travel, access to funds and strong networking are the lifelines of terrorist outfits or individuals. Their reliance on them to further their cause is absolute. Cutting off these lifelines by placing travel bans, freezing assets and placing an embargo on arms will ensure that these entities are severely disabled and their sphere of influence and activity curtailed. Such measures need to be increasingly adopted by all countries on a regular basis, who must use their intelligence-gathering apparatus to relentlessly gather information on all individuals and organisations involved in the growth of terrorist activities around the world. The fact that some 12,000 fighters from at least 74 countries have travelled to Syria and Iraq of late reveals the reach of these operations. Let us hope that this blacklist grows in numbers by the day.
UN blacklisting of terror groups a significant step
UN ban will help prevent a higher groundswell of global destabilisation