India is ready to cooperate with Pakistan to tackle the threat of terrorism, Defence Minister Rajnath Singh has said, in another strong message to the neighbouring country days after he asserted that “those trying to foment trouble on our soil will not be spared”.
“If Pakistan realises that it is not able to tackle terrorism, it can ask for India’s help if it wants. India is ready to cooperate to stop terrorism,” Singh said in a podcast with ANI. The news agency released a promo of the interview on its X (previously Twitter) account on Thursday. The full interview was released hours later — at 5 pm.
“…If Pakistan tries to destabilise India through terrorism, they will have to pay the price,” Singh added in the podcast. Last week, Singh told CNN-News that the government will give a fitting reply to any terrorist who tries to disturb peace in India.
“If he [terrorist] flees to Pakistan, we will follow him and take him down on Pakistani soil. Prime Minister Narendra Modi has spoken the truth… India has the capability and Pakistan has also started understanding that,” Singh said in an exclusive conversation with Network18 Group Editor-in-Chief Rahul Joshi.
In the ANI podcast, Singh also touched upon the issue of Pakistan-Occupied Kashmir (PoK). “It was ours, is ours, and will remain ours,” he said. In the CNN-News18 interview, too, he spoke on PoK, saying it “will always remain an integral part of India”.
“Be assured that the people of PoK will themselves demand that they be with India. You must have seen that there were a few demonstrations there since they want to merge with India. After the abrogation of Article 370, normalcy has returned to Kashmir and development has been fast-tracked,” he told CNN-News18.
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