India, Malayasia agree to tackle ISIS jointly

New Delhi: India and Malaysia on Monday agreed to proactively cooperate with each other in combating the menace of ISIS, which is growing its spread in the two countries.

In a delegation-level meeting with the visiting Malaysian Deputy Prime Minister and Home Minister Dato Seri Ahmad Zahid Hamidi here, Union Home Minister Rajnath Singh said India is concerned about the danger of increased ISIS activities in democratic countries like India and Malaysia.

"They (ISIS) have started using our countries as recruiting grounds and attract our youngsters with their extremist ideology," he said.

Singh said if democracies do not address it internally and if countries do not cooperate with each other through strong intelligence sharing, it will be increasingly difficult to stop this ideology from poisoning the minds of youngsters.

"India is also interested in knowing more about Malaysia?s deradicalisation programme," he said.

The Home Minister proposed more regular meetings of the Joint Working Group on Counter-Terrorism and Transnational Crimes besides those under ambit of the MoU on Cyber Security Cooperation signed during Prime Minister Narendra Modi's visit to Malaysia last November.

The Home Minister said MHA is studying the comments of Malaysia on the draft MoU on Combating Transnational Crime and expressed hope it would be signed expeditiously.

Singh expressed hoped the MoU on Transfer of Sentenced Prisoners will be fast-tracked.

Seeking Kaula Lumpur's support, he said India continues to be concerned about terrorists who plan their terrorist activities from abroad.

Recalling the repeated terrorist attacks from across the border, including the attack on the Pathankot IAF Station and the attack on a CRPF convoy at Pampore, Singh said such acts, even if perpetrated in our neighbourhood, certainly have broader repercussions since they feed into the larger terrorist activities taking place worldwide through Al Qaeda, ISIS etc.

Expressing satisfaction on the close bilateral security cooperation, especially over counter-terrorism, Singh lauded Malaysia for its cooperation over the last few years in apprehending some of the terrorists who were wanted in India.

"We appreciate the close cooperation between our security agencies, particularly the Malaysian Special Branch on Counter-Terrorism which has been working closely with the Intelligence Bureau," he said.

The two sides also discussed the issues such as Extradition Treaty and Fake Indian Currency Notes (FICN).

The visiting delegation presented a copy of the Integrated Rehabilitation Module for Detainees in Malaysia.

The Indian delegation comprised the Ministers of State for Home Affairs Gangaram Hansraj Ahir and Kiren Rijiju and Senior Officers of MHA while the Malaysian delegation included Deputy Secretary General (Bilateral Affairs), Dato Muhammad Shahrul Ikram Yaakob, High Commissioner of Malaysia to India, Datuk Naimun ashakli Mohammad and other Officers.