The terror attack on Mumbai has brought back into focus the menace of terrorism at the international level. At a three-day national conference at the Nirma University campus starting January 18, eminent forensic experts from across India and abroad will deliberate on how forensic science can play a crucial role to detect, prevent and abort such attacks in future.

Chief Minister Narendra Modi will inaugurate the conference, which will be organised with the help of the Ministry of Home Affairs.

J M Vyas, Director, Forensic Science Laboratory, Gujarat said: “The role of forensic science in the investigations following the blasts is well-known. But now, a new concept of preventive forensics is being developed in advanced countries to prevent and abort terror attacks. This concept will also be discussed at the conference keeping in view the recurring terror attacks in India and elsewhere in the world.”

Vyas told Newsline on Thursday that about 400 delegates, including 40 from countries like the US, the UK, Canada, France and Israel, will participate in the conference, the main theme of which is "Forensics to counter terrorism".

Explaining the new concept of "preventive forensics", he said that future plans could be extracted from terrorists through their narco-tests, and a data base on this could be prepared, which could later be used to help prevent any attacks. The concept also calls for storing a voice data of captured terrorists and a database of their DNA tests to prevent such attacks, he said.

The main focus of the conference will be on terrorism from a global perspective to deliberate and find out more practical and effective ways to counter this menace wherein modern technologies and forensics play a crucial role. Violent outbursts have posed a great challenge to forensics also, as of late, terrorist outfits are found to be educated, socially affluent and well conversant with the technologies to create terror in the society, he said.