Pakistani terror groups, insurgencies will be defeated: India (Roundup)

NEW DELHI - India Sunday declared that attempts by Pakistani terror groups to foment trouble in Jammu and Kashmir would be put down with a firm hand, as would the multiple threats posed by leftwing extremism and insurgencies in the northeast.

Addressing chief ministers on internal security for the third time after the 26/11 terror strikes in Mumbai that killed 166 people, Prime Minister Manmohan Singh and Home Minister P.Chidambaram said that terror groups operating from across the border would be defeated.

“The state of Jammu and Kashmir bears the brunt of the acts of these groups. There is insurgency and violence in the northeast. Many states are affected by leftwing extremism, which I have in the past referred to as the greatest threat to our internal security,” said the prime minister.

“There are also those trying to divide our society on communal and regional lines. Each one of these threats requires a strong effort, determination, hard work and continuous vigilance to tackle. These threats to our society, to our polity and our country constitute a challenge that we must and we shall meet effectively at all costs,” he said.

Manmohan Singh also referred to his recent meetings with chief secretaries where he had called for a coordinated effort between the centre and the states to face these internal threats.

“We are also aware that the central government has much more to do”, Manmohan Singh said and gave an assurance that there will be “no let up in our commitment and our efforts.”

In his opening remarks, Chidambaram, almost on cue with the prime minister, cautioned that infiltration levels were on the rise in Jammu and Kashmir since the beginning of the year and stressed that “dark forces” in Pakistan “will not succeed in their designs” to create turmoil in the state.

Pointing specifically to the anti-India jehadi rally held on Thursday in Pakistan-administered Kashmir by the Jama’at-ud-Dawaah (JuD), a banned frontal organisation of the Lashkar-e-Taiba (LeT) terror outfit, to express ’solidarity with Kashmir’, Chidambaram said these groups were “implacably opposed to India”.

“It is clear that these groups are implacably opposed to India; their weapons are mayhem and violence; and their goal is forcible annexation of Kashmir. Let me make it clear: these dark forces will not succeed in their designs. We will defeat them whenever and wherever we confront them,” said the home minister.

Referring to Maoist violence that is often referred to India’s greatest internal security challenge, Chidambaram, said all the six-affected states had endorsed the action plan of the union government to launch operations, especially after the government’s offer of talks was scoffed at and spurned by the Communist Party of India-Maoist leadership.

Left wing extremists continue to target vital installations and kill innocent civilians in Bihar, Chhattisgarh, Jharkhand, Maharashtra, Orissa and West Bengal that has claimed 1,125 deaths in 2009.

“In consultation with chief ministers of Naxal (Maoist) affected states, we decided to boldly confront the challenge thrown by the CPI-Maoist. All of us are on the same page,” he said.

The prime minister and home minister got praise from two Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) chief ministers - Chhattisgarh Chief Minister Raman Singh and Narendra Modi of Gujarat - in tackling Maoist violence.

“Compared to the past experience of seven years, we have got a good response from the central government. Chidambaram has clarity of thought… the prime minister also takes interest,” Singh said on tackling Maoist insurgency that plagues his state.

“The response of the home minister and home secretary is swift and positive whenever there is a demand from the states,” Modi said.

His remarks came in the backdrop of the central government’s refusal to give its nod to the president to sign the controversial Gujarat Control of Organised Crime Act (GUJCOCA) passed by the state assembly which Modi termed as an “injustice with Gujarat.”