Indian minister accuses Pakistan of backing terrorism
Islamabad supporting militants in Kashmir, trying to destabilise Delhi's rule, high-ranking Indian minister says after deadly attack
A top Indian minister has hit out at Pakistan, saying it is backing acts of terrorism against India in a bid to destabilise the country.
Home Affairs Minister Rajnath Singh, the second-most-powerful official in India after Prime Minister Narendra Modi, told a security conference in India's northeast that Pakistan was still supporting militants fighting New Delhi's rule in Muslim-majority Kashmir.
"It is unfortunate Pakistan does not mend its ways," Singh said, singling out Pakistan's Inter-Services Intelligence as one of the "state actors" seeking to roil India's security.
"I do not hesitate in saying Pakistani state actors have a role in destabilising India," Singh said, repeating a long-standing Indian demand that Pakistan rein in Islamic militants.
There was no immediate reaction to Singh's remarks from Pakistan.
His remarks come on the heels of the South Asian Association for Regional Cooperation summit held last week in Nepal that was overshadowed by India's and Pakistan's rivalry and ended with little progress towards regional integration.
Kashmir has been a flashpoint in relations between the two countries, which have fought two of their three wars since independence from Britain over the picturesque region.
Singh's comments came two days after heavily armed militants fought a fierce gun battle with Indian soldiers in which at least 10 people, including four militants, were killed. Indian army officials said the rebels were attempting to infiltrate into Indian Kashmir before Himalayan mountain passes shut down with the onset of winter.
The divided Kashmir region is held in part by Pakistan and India, but claimed in full by both.
Since 1989 about a dozen rebel groups, seeking independence or a merger of the territory with Pakistan, have been fighting Indian forces - a battle that has left tens of thousands of people dead, most of them civilians.
Indian politicians have called the recent militant attack in Kashmir, which came as the state is engaged in elections, a deliberate attempt to upset relations between India and Pakistan.
Singh also voiced concern about Indian young people joining the Islamic State group as Indian investigators interrogated a 23-year-old Mumbai-area man who returned home on Friday from the Middle East.
He is believed to have spent nearly six months fighting for Islamic State, Indian police say.
"Even though Isis was born in Iraq and Syria, the Indian subcontinent cannot stay untouched by it - we need to be aware of that reality," Singh said, using one of the acronyms the group was formerly known by.
Muslims make up some 14.4 per cent of majority-Hindu India's population, accounting for about 176 million people, according to a report by the Pew Research Centre, a US think-tank.
