Terrorism will stay as long as there are states sponsoring it, says CDS Gen Rawat

As long as there are states which keep supporting terrorism it will not come to an end, said Chief of Defence Staff (CDS), General Bipin Rawat, on Thursday.

"Terrorism is here to stay as long as there are states that sponsor terrorism and they are going to use terrorists as proxies, make weapons available to them, make funding for them, then we cannot control terrorism," Rawat said during a panel discussion at the Raisina Dialogue, which focused on the tools the global community possesses to punish behaviour by states that have traditionally viewed "non-state actors" as a tool rather than a threat.

"The future of terrorism is going to be as dirty as conventional warfare. We might think of there would be a happy ending, but there won't be. So if we think the war on terrorism is going to end, we are wrong," he added.

He further said that in order to put an end to the terrorism around the globe, the isolation of those sponsoring terrorism was necessary.

"We have to bring an end to terrorism and that can only happen the way Americans started after 9/11, they said let's go on a spree on the global war on terror. To do that you have to isolate the terrorists, anybody who is sponsoring terrorism has to be taken to task," Rawat said.

"Blacklisting by the FATF is one good measure, you have to do diplomatic isolation. Denial of terrorism, saying that they are victims will not work," he added.

( With inputs from ANI )