M A I N   N E W S

PM wants SAARC nations to unite against terror
Ashok Tuteja/TNS

New Delhi, July 9
Prime Minister Manmohan Singh today cautioned Pakistan and other SAARC countries that the region could not realise its full potential until and unless member-nations resolved their differences peacefully and developed the culture of solving their problems themselves.

“Others cannot solve our problems for us. The scourge of terrorism has taken a huge toll on our societies. It is a cancer that, if not checked, will consume us all,” he warned even as he hoped that the countries of the region had the will and foresight to prevent such an outcome.

The PM was inaugurating a four-day conference of SAARC Speakers and Parliamentarians being held to promote people-to-people contacts and further deepen the roots of democracy in South Asia. The conference is being attended by Speakers and Parliamentarians from Afghanistan, Bangladesh, Bhutan, the Maldives, Nepal, Pakistan, Sri Lanka and host India.

Singh observed that South Asia had seen many changes since the first in the series of such conferences was held in 1995. “The winds of democracy have swept the length and breadth of South Asia. In some cases, there has been a peaceful transition from an old order to a new one. In some, the end of war and conflict has opened new opportunities for political accommodation and devolution of power. In others, the struggle for the hearts and minds of the people is underway to defeat the forces of terrorism and extremism.”