ISIS poses 'clear and present danger to India,' admits Rajnath Singh

Stating that the government was concerned about the youngsters who were getting drawn to the ISIS, Union Home Minister Rajnath Singh on Saturday admitted that the extremist organization posed a clear and present danger to India.

"There are some misguided youth who are getting attracted to join organisations like the ISIS. We are concerned about the youngsters who are getting drawn to IS. We cannot take Al-Qaeda's threat of turning India into an Islamic country lightly and should consider it a challenge," Singh said at the DGPs, IGPs conference in Guwahati.

The Home Minister also hit out at Pakistan for claiming that there were non-state actors behind acts of terrorism and asked if ISI was also a non-state actor.

"Pakistan claims that there are non-state actors behind such incidents (of terrorism), I would like to ask is ISI also non-state actor?" he asked.

However, Congress leader Manish Tewari slammed the Bharatiya Janata Party saying those who practice the politics of religion polarization actually play into the hands of extremist organizations.

"The single biggest antidote to ensure that young Indians do not get radicalized is to embrace the inclusive idea of India. Those people who practice the politics of religious polarization, which means the BJP-NDA government, in fact play into the hands of extremist organizations and radical organizations and their politics become the fodder for all these extremist organizations who are a threat to global civilization," Tewari told ANI.

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The Home Minister's comments have come after a Mumbai youth Arif Majeed, one of four youths who had gone to Iraq and is a suspected Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant (ISIS) recruit, returned to India and is now under arrest.