Indian minister to seek anti-jihad strategy: reports
India's home minister reportedly arrived China on Wednesday to discuss bilateral cooperation in the fight against terrorism and safeguarding border stability.
The Press Trust of India news agency said that Rajnath Singh arrived in Beijing on Wednesday.
Earlier Indian media reports said India asked China to share its strategy in dealing with "jihad activities" in Northwest China's Xinjiang Uyghur Autonomous Region in early November.
India is experiencing greater pressure than China in countering terrorism following several deadly attacks, Wang Dehua, director of the Institute for Southern and Central Asian Studies at the Shanghai Municipal Center for International Studies, told the Global Times.
"The Indian government led by the Bharatiya Janata Party, which deeply believes that Hinduism should be the major religion across the country, is more challenged by extremism and terrorism than its predecessor," Jiang Jingkui, director of the Department of South Asian Languages at Peking University, told the Global Times.
During the 2008 Mumbai terror attacks, 10 Pakistani terrorists entered the Indian financial capital by sea from Karachi, killing over 170 people, including six foreign nationals, and injuring 300 others, the Xinhua News Agency reported.
Jiang said that separatists in Xinjiang, bordering disputed Kashmir, are believed by the Indian government to have certain links with terrorists in Kashmir - a hotbed of terrorists that India has blamed for attacks.
Besides, the Indian government worried that the Islamic State (IS) may open a branch in the country, posing another threat to its anti-terror work, Wang said.
An IS branch has been set up in the Indian sub-continent, led by Muhsin al-Fadhli, based in Pakistan, Indian media thequint.com said on Monday.
Singh's visit is expected to firm up security cooperation in various fronts with China, The Hindu newspaper reported on Wednesday.
In turn, the Indian government, which has gathered considerable intelligence in Pakistan, may also provide terrorism-related intelligence in Xinjiang with China, Sun Shihai, vice director of the Institute of Asia-Pacific Studies of the Chinese Academy of Social Sciences, told the Global Times.
Chinese senior defense officials, including China Central Military Commission Vice Chairman Fan Changlong, and their Indian counterparts on Monday called for cooperation in fighting terrorism, Xinhua reported.
Singh's visit is the first by an Indian home minister to China in a decade, The Hindu reported.
Wang said Singh's visit signaled the Indian side's attempt to build trust while reducing suspicions.
China and India concluded joint anti-terrorism training exercises in October in Kunming, Southwest China's Yunnan Province, the fifth of its kind between the two countries' armies, Xinhua reported in October.
China and India held their 7th round of counter-terrorism consultations in New Delhi on November 4, exchanging views on regional and global counter-terrorism efforts, as well as bilateral counter-terrorism cooperation, according to Chinese foreign ministry.
