India cannot stay insulated from international terror, says Rajnath Singh

Guwahati: Union home minister Rajnath Singh said that India cannot be insulated from international terrorism and Islamic state.

“India cannot remain unaffected by international terrorism and the activities of the Islamic State. We can’t take Al Qaeda’s threat of turning India into an Islamic country lightly, we should consider it a challenge,” he said

Asserting that India was capable of handling these threats, Mr Singh, in his inaugural address at the 49th police conference, however, asserted, “There might be many terrorist organisations in the world, but we will not allow them to get a foo-thold in our country.”

Mr Singh also expressed confidence that these Islamic terror groups will never be able to succeed in India and said that the majority of Indian Musl-ims will not side with them.

The home minister, at the meeting attended by police chiefs from across the country as well as senior officials from intelligence agencies, also urged states to fill up vacancies in police forces and assured them of all possible help.

Speaking about modernising police forces, Mr Singh stressed the need to make the police people-friendly.

“Our coastal security network is inadequate and it should be strengthened,” he said while exp-ressing his concern on the growing use of cyberspace by anti-national and anti-social forces.