Rajnath to visit Russia, US; Pak-sponsored terror in focus

New Delhi, Sep 11 (PTI) Ratcheting up pressure onPakistan, Home Minister Rajnath Singh will visit Russia andthe United States next week to highlight the issue of theneighbouring country sponsoring terrorism in India and discussefforts to counter ISIS activities in the region. Singh will visit Russia for five days beginning September18 where he will have bilateral talks with Russian Ministerfor Internal Affairs Vladimir Kolokoltsev and discuss issuesrelated to Indo-Russia joint anti-terror cooperation. They will also discuss cross border terrorism in Jammuand Kashmir and growing activities of ISIS in the country andits neighbourhood. The Home Minister will travel to Washington on September26 for a seven-day visit for the Indo-US Homeland SecurityDialogue with his American counterpart Jeh Charles Johnson. Singh will raise the issue of Pakistan-sponsoredterrorism and activities of ISIS in India and other SouthAsian countries. "In both the bilateral visits to Russia and the US, theHome Minister will highlight Pakistan’s direct involvement incross border terrorism and growing activities of the MiddleEast terror group in India and its neighbourhood," a HomeMinistry official said. The Home Minister will have threadbare discussions withhis Russian and the US counterparts on how to enhanceanti-terror cooperation, especially checking the growingactivities of ISIS and sharing of intelligence inputs. Other issues to be discussed in the two visits includeextradition of each other’s wanted criminals, liberalisationof visas etc. The visit by Singh, one of the top leaders of the Modigovernment, to the two global powers within a week isconsidered significant as India has raised the pitch on theissue of "terror export" from Pakistan. Prime Minister Narendra Modi raised the issue at the G20,BRICS meet and East Asia Summit, where he called on theinternational community to isolate and sanction thisinstigator of terrorism. Modi urged the nations to intensify joint efforts tocombat terrorism and sought "coordinated actions" by thegrouping to "isolate supporters and sponsors of terror". The government’s tough stance comes amid heightenedtension with Pakistan, which is openly backing militancy inJammu and Kashmir which has been hit by unrest for over twomonths now. "The bilateral visits of the Home Minister are part ofIndia’s efforts to create global opinion against Pakistansponsored terrorism in India," the official said. Further cementing anti-terror cooperation, real-timesharing of intelligence inputs, cyber security and criticalinfrastructure protection, countering illicit finance, globalsupply chain security, megacity policing and science andtechnology are some of the key issues to be discussed at themeetings to be held in Moscow and Washington. MORE PTI ACBRT