Jammu, May 27, (Scoop News)_ Indian federal Interior Minister, Rajnath Singh, Wednesday warned Pakistan to stop its “villainous activities” in india if it wants its “own prosperity” and said the neighbour country must stop interfering in India’s affairs.
Addressing a rally in Jan Kalyan Parv in Jammu, the winter capital of the north Himalayan state of Jammu and Kashmir, Singh asserted that he would give a befitting reply to all those who wanted to harm India’s pride, integrity and sovereignty.
Meanwhile, a complete shut down was observed in Jammu, the winter capital, on Wednesday. All shops, educational institutions, corporate houses remained closed and public transport remained off the roads. However, very few private vehicles were seen plying on otherwise busy roads. Police and paramilitary personnel were seen patrolling in communally sensitive areas.
The call for the general strike was given by the AIIMS Coordination Committee and supported by over 70 organisations in protest against shifting of a proposed Medical Institute (AIIMS) to Kashmir.
“We have full faith and trust in our men in uniform and we can never doubt their integrity and love for the country,” Interior Minister said.
India, Singh said, has always extended a hand of friendship towards its neighbouring countries including Pakistan and charged that “they always turned to backstabbing”.
“Former Prime Minister Atal Bihari Vajpayee extended a hand of friendship towards Pakistan, but it stabbed us in the back in Kargil mountains”, he deplored.
Even then when Narendra Modi was sworn as Prime Minister a year ago, he invited all the heads of the state of the neighbouring countries to the ceremony including Nawaz Sharief, Prime Minister of Pakistan, Singh reminisced.
Indian Government, he said, had given “clear orders” to the armed forces especially the paramilitary Border Security Force (BSF) to respond with all its might to any offensive from across the border.
“Last year, Pakistan resorted to unprovoked ceasefire violation. I saw it on television that five of our citizens have died. I immediately asked the Director General, BSF, to make sure that we are not the first to open fire. But if we are fired at from across the border, then Pakistani side must get a befitting reply with full might,” Indian Interior Minister said.
Singh said that it was the response from the Indian side that Pakistan was forced to go to the United Nations to request it to intervene and ask India to stop firing on them.
“There are 72 sects in Islam and there is no other country in the world except India where all of them live together. The first church in the world was constructed in Kerala some 2000 years ago”, he said and added “the Zoroastarian community got so much of respect in this country and believers in Judaism say that India was the only country in the world where they were not persecuted.”
Singh said that India strongly believes that every country in the world must progress and India believes in living in communal harmony.
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