Travel security important to check terrorism

DAINIK NATION BUREAU

Union Minister of State (Independent Charge) for Development of North Eastern Region (DoNER), Dr Jitendra Singh has said that travel security is imperative to check terrorism, both domestic terrorism as well as cross-country terrorism. This, he said, calls for not only constantly evolving new innovative methods to ensure security but also equally as much requires the involvement and vigilance on the part of the citizen.

Speaking at a workshop on the topic “Shaping the Future of Security in Travel” in Davos, Switzerland, today, Dr Jitendra Singh said, he was impressed to hear from the panelists the new comprehensive methods being evolved to create a foolproof framework for security in travel, but, he said, let us not forget that the terrorists and the violators of norms are also constantly evolving new methods to evade or bypass the detection of travel crime or travel related security checks. At this moment, he said, when we are holding a panel discussion over here on this subject, he cryptically remarked that somewhere a similar group of crime promoters may also be holding a similar discussion as to how to negate the new methods of security check.

While underlining the importance of forewarning through alarm, Dr Jitendra Singh also cautioned against the alarm system getting “alarmist”. Since out of hundreds of travellers, he said, there may be a rare isolated one who could be a suspect and therefore, the procedures of security checks also need to be made easy, convenient, and citizen-friendly.

Let us not forget, Dr Jitendra Singh said, that cross-border movement of legitimate travellers has, for centuries, enabled and sustained international trade, tourism driven economy and intermingling of cultures. Therefore, he said, an optimum mechanism needs to be evolved wherein, there is a zero-chance of a potential criminal or terrorist escaping a security check but at the same time, the mechanism does not prove deterrent to legitimate travellers.

During the workshop, presentations were made by experts from Interpol, US Department of Homeland Security, officials from Counter-Terrorism Directorate of United Nations and representatives of Intelligence Wing of People’s Republic of China on the various new methods being tried for comprehensive and easy recording of fingerprints and other parameters without using the conventional methods practised in the past. Upgraded Digital Technology, Artificial Intelligence and Productive Analytic Techniques were also discussed.