Rajnath asks Pakistan to show friendly attitude towards India

• Indian minister says India wants to maintain good relations with ‘all’ countries

CHANDIGARH: India’s Minister for Home Affairs Rajnath Singh has claimed that Pakistan is ‘continuously violating’ the ceasefire agreement with India despite giving an assurance not to do so, saying Islamabad should not misinterpret ‘powerful India’s ‘decency.’

“Three-four days ago, Pakistan Rangers held a flag meeting with our BSF director general. They assured that the ceasefire violation would not take place. But despite this, Pakistan has been violating ceasefire,” he claimed.

“Not saying much, I just want to say our politeness and decency has a limit and we want to maintain good relations with all and also with our neighbours. But our decency should not be wrongly interpreted,” he said.

“India is no more a weak country. India has now become a powerful country,” he claimed. Pakistan, being a neighbour, should have a friendly attitude towards India, he said. Also, he said that the fencing of the Indo-Pakistan border was underway at a rapid pace.

Asked about the case registered against Indian Army personnel following the death of two civilians in firing in Kashmir’s Shopian district last week, the minister praised the army. “I can say that the situation in (Indian-held) Kashmir has turned far normal compared to what it was,” he claimed.

“Our security forces and the Indian Army personnel were working effectively. Jammu Kashmir is ours, it will always be ours and Kashmiri people are also ours,” he also claimed. To a question related to the 1984 anti-Sikh riots, he said that the Supreme Court recently gave a verdict and a SIT was being formed to follow the order.

On January 11, the court ordered to set up a three-member special investigation team to supervise further probe into 186 anti-Sikh riot cases in which investigations were closed. Asked about the incidents of violence over caste and religion, he said that all people in India were safe irrespective of their caste, creed, and religion.

“I also want to appeal to those plagued with a mentality of casteism, religion, and minority should come out of it and they need to ponder over it. All should believe that we are Indian,” the home minister said when asked to comment on a reported statement of a Kashmiri cleric that Muslims of India should demand a separate nation for themselves.