Home Minister Rajnath Singh addresses a conference of DGPs in Guwahati.
Home Minister Rajnath Singh today expressed concern over the fact that some young men from the country are being lured by the Islamic State and said the government is taking it as a challenge that cannot be left lightly.
Mr Singh also blamed "state actors" in Pakistan for attempts to destabilise India and said it has not abandoned its efforts to harm the country through "various tactics".
Speaking a day after the arrest of Areeb Majeed, one of the four young men from Mumbai who left their homes in May reportedly to join the IS, the Home Minister said, although the terror group was born out of Syria and Iraq, the Indian sub-continent cannot remain untouched by this menace which should be understood.
"It is also a matter of concern that some Indian youths have been attracted to ISIS. We cannot take it lightly. We take it as a challenge" he said addressing a conference of the DGPs and IGPs in Guwahati.
Mr Singh said the arrest of Majeed, was not an action to harass him, asserting that all such incidents will be taken on a case-by-case basis.
He described as a threat the Al Qaeda's declaration to form a wing - Qaeda-ul-Jehad - for the Indian sub-continent, and said the global terror group's intention was to bring Bangladesh, Assam, Gujarat, Jammu and Kashmir and some other parts of the country under its grip which the country would not allow to happen.
Mr Singh said Pakistan continues to take the alibi of "non-state actors" being involved in subversive activities in India. "If non-state actors are involved in terrorist acts in India, then is ISI a non-state actor? It is the state actors who have a role in trying to destabilising our country. Pakistan has not abandoned its efforts to harm India through various tactics," he said.
The Home Minister also added that many foreign terrorist groups think that since a large number of Muslims live in India, they can recruit many of them in their fold and fight for creation of an Islamic country.
"But Indian Muslims are patriotic and they have been fighting for the protection of their mother land since Independence. Indian Muslims are always ready to fight for the security and sovereignty of the country. And that is why such terrorist groups will not succeed," he said.