Ajit Doval at NIA: National Security Advisor Ajit Doval on Monday explained how terrorism can be fought effectively especially when it is backed by a state. Speaking at an event of the National Investigation Agency, the NSA said that terrorism is not new and the state doesn’t fight terror. “To fight terror is an abstract idea…You don’t fight terror. You do so by degrading terrorists and that’s done by taking their weapons and their concept,” Doval said while speaking at the national conference of Chiefs of Anti-Terrorism Squad/Special Task Force.

The NSA further said that terrorists can be defeated by finding out their background, zeroing in on their source of funds and weapons. “If a criminal has the support of a state, it becomes a great challenge. Some of the states have mastered this — in our case, Pakistan has made it as an instrument of its state policy,” Doval said. The NSA is the most feared man in Pakistan because he believes in the offensive defense policy that means, you hit the enemy before it hits you — which is what India did after the Uri attack.

Doval was handpicked by Narendra Modi as his NSA in 2014. He is regarded as the key man behind the crackdown on separatists in Jammu and Kashmir. He was entrusted with the task of overseeing the security situation in the Valley following the abrogation of special status granted to Jammu and Kashmir under Article 370.

Speaking on Pakistan, the National Security Advisor said that Islamabad has come under massive pressure because of the proceedings of the Financial Action Task Force (FATF) — an intergovernmental organisation that monitors terror financing. “One of the biggest pressures that have come on Pakistan today is because of the proceedings of FATF, it has created so much pressure on them that probably no other action could have done,” he said. The FATF has asked Pakistan to act on terror groups operating from its soil or face funding freeze.

Doval also hailed the NIA for the work that it has done in the Valley. “The impact that NIA has been able to make against terrorism in Kashmir is more than any other agency,” he said.