Rajnath Singh meets Islamic leaders over IS sway

NEW DELHI: Days after sixteen men were arrested for joining Islamic State (IS) in India by the National Investigation Agency (NIA), Home Minister Rajnath Singh and National Security Advisor Ajit Doval on Tuesday held a meeting with the top Muslim clerics and sought their cooperation to check the growing tentacles of the dreaded group among Muslim youth.

The two-hour-long meeting was also attended by senior Home Ministry and Intelligence Bureau officials who told the Muslim clerics about activities of the Middle-East terrorist group and its efforts to attract Indian youth to its fold. The Home Minister sought the cooperation of the clerics, who offered all help to the government in this regard, official sources said.

The issues that were discussed included misuse of social media, sources of impetus that attract persons, specially youth, to ISIS, the growth of ISIS influence in India’s neighbourhood and the best possible law enforcement response. Those who attended the meeting include Jamiat Ulema-e-Hind’s Maulana Arshad Madani, Maulana Abdul Wahid Hussain Chisti of Ajmer Sharif, Asghar Ali Imam Mehdi of Jamiat Ahle Hadees, Tauqeer Raza Khan, Rafiq Warshiq, Shia leader Maulana Syed Kalbe Jawad Qalbe Jawaid, Kamal Farooqi, Mushafa Faruqi besides others.

The need for appropriate welfare schemes for minorities, social media strategies to be followed, especially in the area of information technology were also discussed threadbare. In his remarks, the Home Minister said India’s traditions and family values will overcome such nefarious designs of terrorist groups and that while the traction that ISIS has got in India is extremely limited, and almost insignificant in comparison to other countries, there is a need to keep up vigil on all fronts, and not let down the guard in any manner.

This was for the first time that the Home Minister had a meeting with Muslim clerics on the issue of ISIS. Last fortnight, the Home Minister had a meeting with top officials of central intelligenceandinvestigativeagencies and police of 13 states and discussed stepstocheckthegrowinginfluenceof ISIS among youngsters through social media and other sources.

Singh had reviewed the situation arising out of some Indian youths getting attracted towards ISIS on several occasions in the past.