Union Home Minister Rajnath Singh on Saturday said though India is the second largest Muslim populated country in the world, the terror outfit ISIS has not been able to set foot in the country and the security situation had by and large remained under control .
“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,” the Home Minister said here at the Press conference marking thee-years of achievements of his Ministry.
More than 90 sympathisers of ISIS had been arrested due to better coordination between State and Central security agencies. Five terrorists of the Indian Mujahideen (IM) group were given capital punishment as part of the Government’s focused efforts to check terrorism, Rajnath said.
Barring two terror attacks in Punjab in 2015-16, the security situation in the country had by and large remained under control, the Minister said.
“The Home Ministry has a major responsibility to provide security to the country. I can say that we have together by and large provided security to the country.
The ISIS and the Ansar-ul-Ummah, frontal organisation of the Pakistan-based Harkat-ul-Mujahideen group, have been included in the list of banned terrorist organisations in order to check terrorism.
“There is improvement in the security situation in the country. We have been successful in countering the challenges posed by the ISIS,” the Home Minister said.
Comparing the previous UPA regime with the NDA tenure, he said a total of 239 militants were neutralised from 2011 to 2013. “This number has gone up to 369 during 2014-17.”
He said there had been 45 per cent reduction in infiltration attempts from Pakistan since the surgical strike by the Army in September 2016, compared to the corresponding six months in the previous year. “We will end Pakistan-sponsored terrorism in Jammu and Kashmir and ensure peace,” the home minister said.
He mentioned special initiatives being taken by the NDA Government to provide skill and job opportunities to youths in Kashmir. In the three years of the UPA regime (2011-14), he said, over 1,900 youths were provided skill training and jobs were offered to 1,591. In 2014-17, as many as 20,355 were given training and 30,175 were given job offers.
The remuneration given to Special Police Officers (SPOs) had been doubled to Rs 6,000 from Rs 3,000 per month, the Minister said. Besides, 10,000 new posts of SPOs were approved in addition to the existing 25,000.
Mentioning anti-Naxal measures being taken by the Government, Singh said there had been 25 per cent reduction in Naxal attacks in 2014-17 as compared to 2011-14. He said three years of NDA Government had seen a 42 per cent reduction in deaths in Naxal attacks.