‘Working on permanent solution for Kashmir’
Home minister Rajnath Singh says government has plans to resolve Kashmir issue, stresses infiltration in J&K down by 45% after crossborder surgical strikes
Union home minister Rajnath Singh said on Saturday that the NDA government is working towards a permanent solution for the ongoing issues in Kashmir.
Addressing a press conference on three years of the Narendra Modi government, he refused to divulge anything else about the ‘permanent solution’ but added that the problem is seven-decades-old and resolving it will take time.
The minister also claimed that terror outfit Islamic State (IS) has not been able to set foot in India despite the presence of the world’s second largest Muslim population.
In the past few weeks, this is the second time that home minister has spoken about on a government plan to find a permanent solution to the Kashmir problem.
When asked what he meant by a permanent solution, the minister said: “I have said this with utmost responsibility, after much thinking and deliberations. We have some plans and are working in this direction and will find a solid solution in future. It may take some time.”
But he avoided giving a direct answer to a query on the controversy surrounding an incident in Kashmir Valley where a man was tied to an army jeep and paraded through villages using him as a human shield against stone-pelters and merely said the army is doing its job.
However, when M Venkaiah Naidu’s support for the army major who tied the man was mentioned, Singh said: “Whatever Naidu said was correct”.
He also stated that following the cross-border surgical strikes in Jammu and Kashmir in 2016, cross-border infiltration has come down by 45%.
On threat from the ISIS to India, the minister said , “India is the second largest country as far as Muslim population in the world is concerned. I can say with full responsibility that despite such a large population (of Muslims), the ISIS has not been able to set foot.”
He added that due to cooperation between the Centre and states, security agencies have been able to nab more than 90 sympathisers of IS.