In fight against terror, we cannot compromise on justice: Pranab Mukherjee

President Pranab Mukherjee and Prime Minister Manmohan Singh today stressed the "serious challenge" and "potent threats" of terrorism and cautioned that fight against it did not leave scope for compromising with liberty and freedom.

"In the fight against terror, we cannot compromise on the priceless values of justice, freedom, liberty and equality enshrined in our Constitution," Mukherjee said in a message at International conference of Jurists on international terrorism.

The President's message, which was read out, said "Terrorism is a global menace. Rise in incidents of terrorism pose a serious challenge that will define the way we lead our lives in the coming years. "In the fight against terror, we cannot compromise on the priceless values of justice, freedom, liberty and equality enshrined in our Constitution."

He said the acumen of jurists can help in building a robust system to tackle acts of terror while upholding democracy, the rule of law and respect of human rights.

The message from the Prime Minister's office said "terrorism is today one of the most potent threats to international and national security". "The Prime Minister has always supported legislations to strengthen the substantive anti-terrorism law in line with the global consensus on the fight against terrorism. "Prime Minister hopes deliberations from the Conference will help in strengthening and improving the legal obligations in fighting the scourge of terrorism," the message read.

Home Minister Sushilkumar Shinde also sent a message in which he said "Terrorism is the biggest enemy of humanity and many people across the globe have lost their lives to terrorism."

He said it was "indeed heartening" to learn that legal luminaries had decided to deliberate on the subject. The conference was organised by International Council of Jurists, All India Bar Association and the Indian Council of Jurists.

The conference was also addressed by former Supreme Court judge Justice V S Sirpurkar, MK Sharma and Haryana Chief Minister Bhupinder Singh Hooda, who said the country is working towards training and better equipping its forces to tackle terrorism.

Hooda, however, stressed that in order to fight terrorism, we must not go "overborad" and should abide by our Constitution principles of justice, freedom, liberty and dignity to which we owe our allegiance and safeguard our human rights.

At the event, national law day award were presented to former Supreme Court Judge Justice MK Sharma, Additional Solicitor General Siddharth Luthra, Additional Solicitor General Mohan Jain and others. International Jurists Award were presented to Dr Hadef Jawa'an Al Dhaheri, minister of Justice UAE, Justice YKJ Yeung, Chief Justice of Mauritius and Dr Tun Shin, Attorney General and cabinet minister of Myanmar.