2 nd Workshop on Proactive Approach to Counter Terrorism 

13 April 2018 - UNDOC in collaboration with the National Counter Terrorism Authority (NACTA), with the support of the European Union organised the 2 nd Workshop on Proactive Approach to Counter Terrorism" from 11 to 13 April 2018 at Marriot hotel, Islamabad. The workshop brought together 25 participants from provincial and federal law enforcement and intelligence agencies to discuss and deliberate upon approaches for developing a mechanism on national threat levels and assessment to effectively counter terrorism. 

On the first day of the workshop, Mr. Mohsin Hassan Butt, Member (Counter Terrorism and Counter Extremism) from NACTA and Mr. Arslan Malik, Associate Program Coordinator Pakistan's Action to Counter Terrorism (PACT) Project at UNODC welcomed the participants and delivered presentations on their organization's role and mandate in countering terrorism. Later in the day, Mr. Ommaney Chinyungurwa from Interpol presented Interpol's global mandate, strategy and policing capabilities in addition to demonstrating live use of Interpol's I24/7 database which is available to Member States to fight transnational organised crime and terrorism. At the end of Day 1 session, participants visited NACTA Secretariat, where they were briefed by Mr. Ihsan Ghani, National Coordinator on the recent initiatives and achievements of NACTA in countering terrorism and extremism in the country. 

On the second day, various threat assessment models of the European countries were presented by Ms. Olivia Hyvrier, a model of Canada by Mr. David Thorne, and lastly, a model of Sri Lanka by Major General Rajaguru and Captain Ranaweera.

The session was followed by a group exercise during which participants reflected and deliberated upon a possible national threat assessment template. Methodology for different threat assessment products were also presented to the participants and discussed in an interactive session with the facilitators of the workshop. 

For the first half of Day 3, participants were divided into four groups for a practical exercise and were tasked with developing a threat assessment report based on the prevailing security risks Pakistan faces from various national, regional and international terrorist organisations. 

During the closing session, UNODC Criminal Justice Advisor on behalf of the Country Representative Mr. Cesar Guedes reiterated UNODC's strong commitment and support to NACTA in developing capacity of federal and provincial authorities in proactively identifying risks and security threats emanating from terrorist groups while contributing to strengthening the Government of Pakistan's response to counter terrorism.  

"The European Union is closely engaged with Pakistan under a five-year strategic partnership agreement and Pakistan's Action to Counter Terrorism (PACT) project is a result of our strong commitment towards eliminating terrorism," said the Head of Delegation Cooperation, Mr. Bernard Francois. 

The Chief Guest on the occasion, Mr. Ihsan Ghani, National Coordinator of NACTA, appreciated the contributions of the European Union and UNODC and assured to continue working with international partners through such initiatives. He also thanked the participants from Sri Lanka, Canada and Interpol for attending this workshop to share their experiences and best practices in fighting terrorism.