Afghanistan representative to the United Nations, Mahmoud Saikal has called for serious fight against terrorist hideouts.

At the UN General Assembly Debate on Implementation of the UN Global Counter-Terrorism Strategy, Saikal noted that, in recent years, the scale and scope of terrorism had expanded worldwide, moving across borders, regions and continents.

“The enemies of humanity are still terrorizing communities,” he stressed, underscoring that “no country is more familiar with terrorism than my country”.

Saikal said terror and bloodshed is a frequent occurrence in Afghanistan, propagated by terrorist safe havens and sanctuaries in the region.

“Our people and our security forces will never allow the enemies of peace in our country to disrupt our journey towards peace, stability and development,” he said. “We will continue our longstanding struggle against this menace with fortitude and commitment. In this context, we look to our international partners, including the UN to continue to stand beside us in our shared endeavor.”

India’s representative has also called for early conclusion of the Comprehensive Convention for Combating International Terrorism.

“Developing a comprehensive global response ought to be our highest priority,” he said, stressing the need for an early conclusion of the Comprehensive Convention on International Terrorism, which would reflect the unwavering common commitment to cooperate in combating terrorism. “Imagination and integration remain two of our major shortcomings,” Syed Akbaruddin, India’s envoy said.

Pakistan said has been failed to eliminate the terrorism roots despite spending millions of dollars.

” he international community had invested billions of dollars over the past decade to fight terrorism, it had not been able to eliminate its root causes. In order to comprehensively combat terrorism, the scourge could not be separated from its political context. In that regard, the Strategy remained the main document to best meet the technical requirements of States,” said Mr. Ahmed, Pakistan envoy to UN.

This comes as all speakers in General Assembly urge head of new counter-terrorism office to strengthen United Nations system coordination towards preventing and ending menace.