Webinar Series: How Terrorism has Evolved During the COVID-19- Organized by: Institute of Peace and Diplomatic Studies.

I nstitute of Peace and Diplomatic Studies organized a video Webinar on "How Terrorism has Evolved during the COVID-19" on Saturday, 4th July 2020 at 3 pm (PST). The webinar was joined Dr. Jade Hutchinson, Department of Security Studies and Criminology, Macquarie University, Australia and the Research Centre for Media and Journalism Studies at Groningen University, Netherland, Shaheera Syed, Strategic Communication Officer at Democracy Reporting International, and Abdul Basit, Research Fellow at International Centre for Political Violence and Terrorism Research and Rajaratnam School of International Studies and also at Nanyang Technological University, Singapore.

Ms. Farhat Asif, President of the Institute of Peace and Diplomatic Studies in her welcome address shared the reason for hosting such an important discussion especially in the ongoing scenario of COVID-19 as to see how this has impacted the terrorism and its dimension at national, regional and global level. Abdul Basit said that the pandemic has been a great equalizer; it doesn't discriminate along political, ethnic, and religious lines.

At the same time, a coronavirus has exposed inequalities between the haves and have not in our societies. Now the opinions of the terrorism scholars about the impact of coronavirus are divided. Some believe that it is a great challenge for the terrorists and those who believe that it is a great opportunity for terrorists. Abdul Basit has synthesis the two shades of opinion and shared his finding with the COVID and unpresidential situation.

He said most speculative some of it may stay with us, some of it may redundant and some of it will be different over time. He said it is also important to remember that what happened after the pandemic is more important than what happens during the pandemic. He said in the current situation the pandemic has stolen the limelight from terrorism.

So they're unable to get that limelight. And the psychological effect of terrorism is to intimidate people. But right now the pandemic has more terrorizing effects than the terrorist. Is terrorists are equally squared of the pandemic. He said the terrorist operators are not going

to the area where there is pandemic because they will bring the virus with them. He also mentioned the terrorism theory and relates it with the COVID era and said if we pay less attention to the terrorists, they will be less violent. Dr. Jade Hutchinson said that certain groups within Australia...