KARACHI, Dec 15: The enormity of the terrorist attacks in Mumbai and their implications for the regional and global security environment dominated the proceedings of a simulation exercise on Saarc responses on Monday as participants termed them a “wake-up call” and emphasised the need for setting up of a workable bilateral and multilateral anti-terrorism institutional mechanism for combating the menace.

The simulation exercise, attended by international relations students drawn from various universities of Pakistan, is being organised by the Department of International Relations, University of Karachi, in collaboration with Hanns Seidel Foundation, Islamabad.

While the participants condemned terrorism, there were differences on the need to define terrorism, especially when there were ideologically motivated non-state actors involved in it, and also because the problem has been compounded by the dubbing of freedom struggles of certain people as terrorism.

On Monday four sessions were held, dealing with different themes -- Joint Anti-Terror Mechanism, Common Human Rights Commission, Free Trade Agreement and Common Environment Programme.

A consensus was developed to combat terrorism in any form, formulation of regional strategy and creating of a regional security council. The participants also insisted that drug trafficking and money laundering was also a facet of terrorism and every effort should be made to dry up financial resources of terrorist outfits.

The Saarc additional protocol on terrorism dealt with the question of preventing the financing of terrorism. Calling for an urgent conclusion of a ‘Comprehensive convention on international terrorism’, the Saarc countries decided to turn the heat on financing of terrorism, reaffirming their commitment to implementing all international conventions on combating terrorism. It was emphasised that in view of the global proliferation of terrorism, it was imperative that national and regional structures and mechanisms for combating terrorism be strengthened.

The additional protocol to the South Asian Association for Regional Cooperation’s Regional Convention on Suppression of Terrorism has come into force with all the seven countries of the grouping ratifying it to wage a joint war against terrorism.

With the aim of having zero tolerance to terrorism in all forms and manifestations, Saarc countries had felt that the additional protocol would help the member countries to meet the challenge of terrorism.

It was emphasised that peace could be the only option for the salvation of the future of South Asia.

Prof Dr Mutahir Ahmed, the moderator of the session, said there must be confidence-building and damage-control measures to deal with the issue of terrorism. Besides, there must be intelligence sharing and institutionalisation of policy-making process.

The theme of the second session was a ‘Common human rights commission’. The law ministers (students) unanimously developed consensus on human rights violations in the region. It was decided that there should be a common strategy to confront common social problems such as child labour, poverty and women’s rights violations. They also suggested having a common ‘South Asian human rights commission’, which could monitor and advise countries on the promotion of human rights in the region. It was decided that there should be a common strategy to confront common social problems.

Trade was another area discussed by the participants of the exercise. They intended to revamp and further develop the mechanism of the South Asian Free Trade Agreement.

The fourth area was the environment, upon which there was a great consensus. They all agreed that environmental degradation was a common threat ruining the region immensely. They agreed on devising ways and measures for dealing with this problem.

This exercise was helpful in the intellectual grooming of students in deliberations and negotiating skills with a lot of practical experience. Dr Naeem Ahmed, assistant professor, department of international relations, University of Karachi, is the chief coordinator of the simulation exercise.