Rajnath Singh asks India to support Israel

Panaji, Aug 12: BJP President Rajnath Singh today urged the UPA government to support Israel in its fight against the Hizbollah, Hamas and other terrorist groups besides initiating diplomatic efforts to disarm these outfits.

''Israel is a friend of India and a strategic partner. Both the countries are facing terror. It will be beneficial to India to help Israel in its fight against terror,'' Mr Singh said.

Interacting with mediapersons at the conclusion of his two-day visit to Goa, Mr Singh regretted that India was supporting Hizbollah, a terrorist organisation and chose to condemn Israel which was a victim of terror, like us.

In this connection, he reiterated his demand for using India's influence with the international community such as the UN Security Council to bring pressure on Pakistan and Bangladesh to dismantle terrorist hideouts/camps in neighbouring countries which pose a security threat to us.

''Till cross-border terrorism is stopped from these 'neighbours,' India should refrain from initiating confidence building measures (CBM) with Pakistan and Bangladesh while continuing to use all diplomatic skills,'' he said.

He however hastened to add India should ''attack'' these countries to strike the terrorist camps as Israel was doing now against Lebanon, but they could be dismantled through diplomatic initiatives.

He recalled the decision of the then Vajpayee government to stop the CBMs following which General Musharaf initiated dialogue with our government after January 4, 2004.

India, he said, should apprise the international community and the United Nations of the risks involved in ignoring the growing menace of terrorism in its' neighbourhood, as it could be a threat to the rest of the world as well.

The UPA government, Mr Singh said, had not taken terrorism in its neighbourhood seriously and abdicated its respopnsibility of protecting its citizens' lives and property even as these countries had become the hub of terrorism.

The growing menance of terrorism in even neighbouring Nepal and Lanka was a cause of concern to India' security but the Centre remained indifferent and did not take any initiative even as Pakistan's intelligence agency - Inter Services Intelligence(ISI) had been suspected for being behind all terrorist activities in India.

The initiative with Nepal should be such that the terrorist Maoist outfits should not be able to influence the Government in the Himalayan Kingdom and must not be able to infiltrate into India.

UNI

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