Involve people to tackle terrorism: Kalam

New Delhi, May 1 (UNI) President A P J Abdul Kalam today called for a higher degree of peoples intervention along with political, military and police methods to deal with terrorists and bring universal peace and harmony.

Presenting the 'Kabir Puraskar' to Md Aynal Hoque and K Rajaratnam Isaac, the President called upon the political leadership, bureacucracy, social reformers and intellectuals to encourage people to intervene during violent incidents to bring universal peace and harmony.

Eminent Gandhian Hema Bharali received the National Communal Harmony Award in the individual category while the Ramakrishna Mission in the organisation category.

Dr Kalam condemned the brutal killing of an Indian telecom engineer K Suryanarayan by the Taliban in Afghanistan yesterday and said all nations have a collective responsibility to device a mechanism to see that such situations donot occur in future.

He said many countries are facing such situations as some people have become violent and donot follow any rule of law as conscience has been extinguished in them.

''Even where we have taken action against the terrorists through political, military and police methods, we have not been able find a permanent solution and the solutions are evading. In all our actions, I believe we have to consider injection of certain higher elements,'' the President said.

''...Apart from finding military, diplomatic and social solutions for containing the problems of terrorism and violence, we should encourage good human beings and enlightened citizens across the world to intervene in such problems to bring universal peace and harmony at an appropriate time for finding a lasting solution,'' Dr Kalam said.

Pointing out the supreme sacrifice and selfless service of Mahatma Gandhi during the freedom struggle, he said that to bring this kind of transformation in the modern time, the youth need to be assured that the governance system is with those who are truthful and dutiful.

Speaking on this occasion Prime Minister Manmohan Singh said these awardees, who are shining examples of communal harmony and co-existence of diverse faiths our acient land, would inspire all those in the forefront of safeguarding our common heritage and tradition of tolerance and amity.

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