Government trying its best to prevent radicalization of youth in India, says home minister Rajnath Singh

Tel Aviv: India is confident that the Islamic State militants will not be able to make a "big impact" in the country and the government is trying its best to prevent radicalization among the youth, home minister Rajnath Singh has said.

"We are trying every way possible to prevent radicalization in India. IS has had no significant impact in India, however other countries have been affected. IS will not be able to able to make a big impact in India," Singh told PTI here in an interview while commenting on reports that a number of youths have joined the dreaded terror outfit.

IS militants control large areas of Iraq and Syria since June but have been targeted by air strikes by the US-led coalition since August.

Singh also did not rule out the possibility of al-Qaida setting up a branch in the country to wage jihad in the Indian sub-continent.

"Al-Qaida's activities have been ongoing but any information regarding an Asia-specific organization that they have built is not yet available. We, however, do not rule out any possibility," Singh, who was here for talks with the Israeli leadership on ways to boost India-Israel cooperation in areas like counter-terrorism and cyber-security, said.

Al-Qaida leader Ayman al-Zawahiri in September had announced that the global Islamist extremist movement has launched a new off-shoot in the Indian sub-continent.

Replying to a question on the biggest security threat for India — home grown outfits like CPI (Maoist), Indian Mujahideen or foreign terrorist groups like al-Qaida and Lashkar-e-Taiba — Singh said, "We do not differentiate between dangers as big and small. Dangers are dangers.

"All our security agencies, our intelligence agencies, keep a tab on emerging dangers and also take necessary measures to address such dangers," he said.