Asserting that terrorism is becoming a new form of warfare, Army chief Gen Bipin Rawat said Wednesday the menace is spreading its head like a "multi-headed monster" and is "here to stay" as long as states continue to use it as a policy.
Mr Rawat, speaking at a panel discussion at the Raisina Dialogue here, also said that there was a need to control social media as it was becoming a source of spreading radicalisation.
He said a different kind of radicalization was being witnessed in India and in Jammu and Kashmir, the youth were getting radicalized due to a lot of misinformation, disinformation, and a lot of falsehoods on religion being fed to them.
General Rawat said, therefore, you are seeing more and more educated youth moving towards terrorism. He said without mentioning Pakistan that unless the country continues to promote terrorism as a national policy it will be present. Rawat said terrorism is becoming a new way of war. A weak country is using terrorists to pressure the country to accept its terms. He said that terrorism is spreading its legs like a monster with many heads.
"That is why you find more and more educated youth being drawn into terrorism,"
Terrorism is here to stay as long as there are nations that continue to sponsor it as a state policy, Mr Rawat said, without naming Pakistan.
"Terrorism is becoming a new form of warfare. A weaker nation is using terrorists as a proxy to put pressure on another nation to come to terms with it,"
The phenomenon of terrorism is now spreading its head like a multi-headed monster, Mr Rawat added.
On the Afghan peace process, he said there should be negotiations with the Taliban, but without conditions.