President meets Pak delegation, says terrorism biggest threat

New Delhi: President Pranab Mukherjee has said that terrorism was the biggest threat to peace and tranquillity, respects no boundaries, causes wanton destruction and that action should be taken to combat it before it becomes unmanageable.

"No one in the world is safe from terrorism. Action should be taken before it become unmanageable," Mukherjee said while welcoming a Pakistani parliamentary delegation that called on him on Friday. Mukherjee said: "India wants more people-to-people contacts between the two countries as it is a powerful way to build and strengthen the constituency of peace in both countries." The President told the delegation headed by the chairman of the Pakistani Senate Syed Nayyar Hussain that the "elected representatives in both countries have an important role to play in efforts to build good neighbourly ties." India desires friendly and cooperative relations with Pakistan, he told the delegation. Welcoming the efforts to achieve full normalisation of trade by the end of the year and Pakistan`s decision to transit to a `negative` list for imports from India, President Mukharjee said "an appropriate conducive atmosphere needs to be created to tackle the more complex, difficult issues." Hussain welcomed the revival of dialogue and said bilateral trade would benefit both sides. He added: "Pakistan is also facing terrorism. Our leader Benazir Bhutto fell victim to a terrorist attack. Terrorism cannot be solved by one country alone. The whole world has to fight against terrorism." Hussain said that the exchange of parliamentary delegations would contribute to improvement in relations between two countries. IANS