ISIS has no base in India: Rajnath Singh

Responding to a supplementary during Question Hour in the Rajya Sabha, Union Home Minister Rajnath Singh said there was no information or proof that the ISIS had made a base in the country.

However, some individuals have come to the notice of the central and state security agencies who have been influenced mainly on the social media by the ISIS ideology, he said.

Singh said 80 people have been identified out of whom 22 were from Kerala and investigation have been initiated against 16 of them. He said these youths have been influenced by fundamentalism and to counter it, the government was running several schemes for their skill development and others.

The Union Minister informed that even some religious leaders have appealed to the youth not to get influenced by the IS. The Minister said even the society and family structures of the country were playing a role in lessening the influence of IS on the youth.

Singh said the government was organising a meeting of central and state security agencies to formulate a national strategy to estimate the threat posed by the IS and the measures to deal with them.