Pakistan may seek India's help in curbing terror: Rajnath

If Pakistan does not have the capability to curb terrorist activity in its territory, it may seek India's help, Home Minister Rajnath Singh has said.

"I want to give a message to Pakistan. Pakistan should curb terrorist activities on its soil. If Pakistan feels it does not have the capability to curb terrorist activities, it should seek assistance from India," he said in an interview to India TV.

He asserted that there has been a 52 percent decline in infiltration from Pakistan in the last two years.

"Terrorist, extremist, Maoist activities have been at their lowest now compared to the last 10 years. The number of security personnel martyred at the hands of Maoists has come down," he said.

On Ishrat Jahan case, he said that attempts were made to politicise it.

"Some papers that should have been there in the home ministry file are missing. I do not want to make personal allegations, but I feel that attempts were made to politicize Ishrat jehan case," Singh said.

On why Pragya Thakur was given clean chit by the National Investigation Agency (NIA) in the Malegaon blast case, the minister said said that it was an agency with "maximum autonomy".

"Till now, the NIA used to send files to home ministry before seeking legal opinion. I directed that NIA, being an autonomous agency, should not send files to our ministry. NIA can send its file directly to the law ministry for legal opinion. How much autonomy/neutrality do you want?" he asked.

On the issue of black money, Singh said that no promise was ever made during the poll campaign that Rs.15 lakh would be deposited in everybody's bank account.

Describing the lynching of Akhlaq in Uttar Pradesh's Dadri as "unfortunate" on rumours of storing beef, he said: "I feel such incidents should never place in a country like India. Anybody having knowledge about India's culture and traditions will never commit such a heinous crime.

"Our saints gave the slogan 'Vasudhaiv Kutumbakam' (the world is one family) to the world."

On Haryana Chief Minister Manohar Lal Khattar's remark that Muslims eating beef have no place in India, Singh said he "completely disagreed" with it.

--IANS

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