India flags dangers of ‘weaponised’ drones at UN

Tribune News Service
New Delhi, June 29

A couple of days after a suspected drone attack on the Jammu air base, India flagged its menace at the UN conference on ‘Global scourge of terrorism: Assessment of current threats and emerging trends for the new decade’.

“Another add-on to existing worries is the use of drones. Being a low-cost option and easily available, utilisation of these platforms for sinister purposes by terrorist groups have become an imminent danger and challenge for security agencies worldwide,” said VSK Kaumudi, Special Secretary (Internal Security) in the Union Ministry of Home Affairs.

“The possibility of the use of weaponised drones for terrorist purposes against strategic and commercial assets calls for serious attention by the member states. We have witnessed terrorists using them to smuggle weapons across borders,” he added.

“The transborder nature of this threat calls for collective and unified action by the international community, without any excuse or exceptions, ensuring that those countries which provide safe havens to terrorists should be called out and held accountable,” emphasised the official.

Other new avenues for spread of terrorism were misuse of new payment methods and crowdfunding platforms for financing of terrorism, the official observed. The increased use of closed group communications on Internet and social media platforms adds to the concern, he said.

Continuing advancements in evolving technologies—Artificial Intelligence, robotics, “Deep fakes”, Blockchain, Dark-web – can also be abused by terrorists. Already, crypto currencies and virtual assets are helping terror financing, helped by the anonymity and untraceable nature of these technologies.

Kaumudi also pointed out that Covid and the subsequent isolation has made people vulnerable to radicalisation and recruitment by terrorist groups who spread terrorist propaganda by enticing them into “video games”.