Indian home minister alleges Dawood Ibrahim’s presence in Pakistan, says Pakistani govt not cooperating with Indian authorities for his extradition
Indian Home Minister Rajnath Singh has alleged that terrorism in India is sponsored by Pakistan as he hit out at India’s South Asian neighbour for “harbouring criminals”.
Speaking during the Hindustan Times Leadership Summit in Delhi on Saturday, Sindh posed a direct question, “Is (Pakistan’s intelligence agency) Inter-Services Intelligence (ISI) also a non-state actor?”
Singh accused Pakistan of harbouring underworld don Dawood Ibrahim, whom he described as the “most-wanted criminal”.
“Ibrahim is in Pakistan. We have asked the government there to hand him over. But they are evading it.”
Speaking on the topic “Why securing India is a difficult job”, Singh said India was also keeping an eye on the Islamic State’s attempt to recruit via social media. On cyber crimes, he said they were a big threat since servers were not in India.
Singh identified Maoist violence as a big problem area, saying Jharkhand and Chhattisgarh were the worst affected states.
“It also exists in Bihar, Andhra Pradesh, Odisha and parts of Uttar Pradesh. A policy paper and action plan are on the way.”
“We are not focusing on killing Maoists. We will develop affected areas. We believe that development in Maoist-affected areas should be faster,” he added.
Singh’s address comes at a time when India’s National Investigation Agency (NIA) is investigating a blast in West Bengal’s District Burdwan and has arrested a Myanmar national indicating an extensive terror network in South Asia.