Indian Defense Minister Warns Against Alienating Muslims
NEW DELHI, March 9 (News Agencies) - Indian Defense Minister George Fernandes Friday warned that New Delhi's attempts to curb the activities of Pakistani intelligence agents should not alienate the country's large Muslim population.
"One has seen that in the ongoing escalation of tension between the two countries [India and Pakistan], created by the Pakistani military and the ISI, there is a fear in the minds of the Muslim community that it could expose them to grave danger," Fernandes said during the release of a book titled, "The Pakistan Trap".
India has a Muslim population of about 130 million.
New Delhi accuses the Pakistani Inter-Services-Intelligence (ISI) agency of fomenting secessionist violence in Indian-administered Kashmir and restive northeastern states.
More than 34,000 people have died in violence in Kashmir, India's only Muslim-majority state, since a conflict against Indian rule re-initiated in 1989.
Pakistan denies Indian allegations of abetting "terrorism" but openly extends moral and diplomatic backing to what it argues is the Kashmiris' rightful struggle for self-determination.
Islamabad also accuses the Indian intelligence agency RAW of fomenting violence in parts of Pakistan's Sindh province.
India and Pakistan have fought two of their three wars over Kashmir since their independence in 1947 and came dangerously close to a fourth conflict in the summer of 1999.
