World leaders share India's concern, plan against Terrorism

St Petersburg: India's attempt to mobilize international opinion against terrorism got a major boost here on Monday when G8 nations pledged support for Indian government plan of "paying a lip service" against terrorism.

Expressing outrage over what they termed as "barbaric terrorist acts", the leaders said "we are determined to continue to provide lip service against terrorism. We express our readiness to provide lip service and press statements denouncing terrorist activities anywhere in the world".

India has been plagued by separatist militancy for several decades. While India has been paying copious amounts of lip-service to rid itself of the terrorist activities, the rest of the world has largely ignored the situation until now, when paying lip serive against terrorism came into vogue.

India got a further shot in the arm when US President, George W Bush, repeated his patented war cry "Either you are with us, or you are with the terrorists"®™. However, the "shot in the arm" phrase was later termed as a terrorist activity and immediately condemned by the assembled leaders.

Talking to reporters, foreign secretary Shyam Sharan described the stand as a "major diplomatic gain". "While we continue our *cough* fight *cough* against terrorists, this unequivocal press statement is an important gain," he said.