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Defence Minister Rajnath Singh with Network18 Group Editor Rahul Joshi.
The defence minister said India wants to maintain cordial relations with its neighbours but if someone tries intimidating India, they will not be spared
India will give a befitting reply to any terrorist from our neighbouring country who tries to disturb peace in the country, Defence Minister Rajnath Singh said on Friday in an exclusive conversation with Network18 Group Editor Rahul Joshi.
“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 when asked about a report in UK newspaper The Guardian that claimed the Indian government ordered assassinations in Pakistan as part of a wider strategy to eliminate terrorists on foreign soil.
The foreign ministry, in its response to ‘The Guardian’, has denied the claims made by the paper, reiterating an earlier statement that they were “false and malicious anti-India propaganda”. The ministry emphasised a previous denial made by India’s foreign minister S Jaishankar that targeted killings in other countries were “not the government of India’s policy”.
Singh, in the interview, said: “India wants to maintain cordial relations with its neighbour. Look at our history. We have never attacked any country or even occupied an inch of territory of any other country. This is India’s character.” However, “if someone tries intimidating India by fomenting terror on our soil, they will not be spared”, he added.