Political leadership is of extreme importance when fighting terrorism, says British State Minister for Security
May 03, 2019The British Minister of State for Security and Economic Crime, Ben Wallace said the political leadership is extremely important to fight against terrorism with international connections. He said this when he called on President Maithripala Sirisena today (May 3) at the President’s Official Residence in Colombo.
Stating that recent attacks by Islamist terrorist is a part of the international terror campaign of the Islamist State (IS), Rt. Hon. Wallace emphasized the imperative need for cooperation among the intelligence services all over the world to combat this menace.
While praising the President for the steps taken including the current successful operations to manage the situation, he referred to the political leadership displayed by President Sirisena to eliminate terrorism and said, he was confident that, “As President you will be able to deliver that”.
President Sirisena thanked Queen Elizabeth, Prime Minister Therese May and the government of United Kingdom for the condolences and support extended at this time of difficulty. He thanked the Minister for sending intelligence experts to assist Sri Lankan intelligent services.
Minister Wallace said that Islam terrorists always adapt new strategies for the acts of terrorism every time and it is important for intelligence services in every country to share information with each other in this global effort to combat terrorism.
The British Minister, who is an ex-military intelligence officer before joining politics, said that his country was totally concentrating on IRA terrorists, when suddenly Al Qaeda attacks took place in London and Manchester. Now we have set up the Joint Terrorism Analyzing Centre to analyze all the intelligence reports from different investigating agencies to ensure every report is given due attention to avoid security lapses, he said. The Minister said UK could assist Sri Lanka to set up a similar central body to analyze intelligence reports.
Director General of UK Office for Security and Counter Terrorism, Tom Burn, Deputy High Commissioner Tom Hurd and Private Secretary to British Minister, Siddhartha Wickremasinghe and Additional Secretary to the President, Esala Weerakoon were also present on this occasion.
Courtesy: pmdnews.lk