Terrorism threat in South Asia must be met with joint action: China Daily editorial

There are clear and worrying signs that the Islamic State terrorist group is seeking to regroup in South Asia: On Friday, it claimed it has established a "province" in India. Prior to this, it claimed responsibility for the Easter Sunday bomb attacks in Sri Lanka that killed more than 250 people.

In a separate development, the Balochistan Liberation Army, a separatist organization, claimed responsibility for an attack on a five-star hotel in Gwadar, Pakistan, on Saturday, in which at least eight people were killed.

All these should sound the alarm for heightened counterterrorism measures in South Asia as the region now faces rising risks from the infiltration and reorganization of IS terrorists driven from Syria and Iraq, as well as the menace of local separatist elements which have long resorted to violence and bloodshed to pursue their political agendas.

The IS group claimed it had set up branches in countries in Central and South Asia, including Afghanistan and Pakistan, during its heyday. After being defeated in Syria and Iraq in April, the terrorist group may see South Asia as a convenient location for it to regroup and bolster its ranks.

The IS group's ambition should be throttled from the very beginning because it is not only related to the global anti-terrorism campaign but also presents a new, tangible threat to a region that is already afflicted with many security woes including those from the Taliban and various local separatist and extremist groups.

Mutual trust among countries in South Asia remains low due to territorial disputes, security loopholes, underdevelopment and poverty. This has provided fertile soil in which terrorist and extremist groups can grow and instigate violence and bloodshed.

To rid the region of the scourge of terrorism and extremism, countries need to show greater political will to work together to eliminate terrorism ad extremism. They also need to properly handle their territorial disputes so that terrorist groups such as the IS will not be able to take advantage of worsening security outlooks in some disputed areas to reorganize.

In the long run, countries in South Asia should conduct security cooperation in a more efficient and effective way so as to improve the capability of the entire region in countering terrorism and extremism. They should jointly search for new solutions to address the new developments of terrorism in the region.