Home Minister Rajnath Singh on Monday accused Pakistan of 'conspiring' to divide India along religious lines and warned the neighbouring country that it would be 'splintered' into 10 nations if it failed to quell terrorism.

Kathua: Home Minister Rajnath Singh on Monday accused Pakistan of "conspiring" to divide India along religious lines and warned the neighbouring country that it would be "splintered" into 10 nations if it failed to quell terrorism.

"Pakistan is conspiring to divide India on religious lines but it will not succeed. We were divided in 1947 on religious basis. We have not been able to forget that... All Indians are brothers, whether they are born from the womb of a Hindu mother or a Muslim mother," he said addressing a Martyrs' Day function in Kathua district.

Singh accused Pakistan of waging a proxy war against India. "We want to live in peace with Pakistan but it has indulged in sponsoring a proxy war against India. Every Prime Minister of India wanted to mend relations with Pakistan but it did not understand the language of peace and attacked India four times. But our brave soldiers gave them a befitting reply."

The Home Minister said Pakistan was waging the proxy war through terrorism, which is a weapon of the weak. "Terrorism is the weapon of the weak and not the brave," he said. "Pakistan came into existence after India got divided on religious lines but it could not keep itself united. In 1971, it got split into two and, if it does not mend its ways, it will get splintered into 10 pieces and India will have no role in it," he said.

Singh said terror groups like Islamic State (IS) had the whole world worried because of its activities but failed to spread its roots in India because of the Muslims. "When the entire world is worried about IS, I can say it as the Home Minister of the country, as I know the reality that IS has not been able to spread its roots in India and the credit for this goes to the Muslims of the country, the followers of Islam," he said. He said people might not know but when a member of somebody's family got radicalised, others came to him to seek his help to save the child from the clutches of the IS. He also offered India's cooperation to Pakistan to help eradicate the menace of terrorism from its soil.

"If Pakistan is serious about eradicating terrorism but is incapable of doing that and wants cooperation, we are ready to help it eradicate terrorism from there," the Minister said. Singh said India always wanted to have friendly relations with all its neighbours but Pakistan betrayed India and returned peace initiatives with terrorist attacks.

"Narendra Modi, before the formation of his government, had held a party meeting and we decided if we want to make India a powerful country we need cooperation of all the neighbouring countries. So we decided to invite all the neighbouring heads of state/government and we invited Nawaz Sharif also, and he had come," Singh said. "Sharif was invited not just to shake hands but let the hearts of the two countries to meet," he said, adding Pakistan should understand "our intentions but it has failed to do so".

He also said Modi, "breaking all protocol", went to attend a function in Sharif's family while returning from Afghanistan. "We try our best that our neighbours live in peace with us. We want development of India as well as that of Pakistan, Nepal, Myanmar, Bhutan and Sri Lanka. All should progress. We want this. But what has Pakistan given us in return for our large-heartedness? "We got Gurdaspur, Pathankot and Uri where terrorists entered and launched cowardly attacks on our soldiers," Singh said. "But we also showed them what we are capable of," he added.

"I thank our soldiers who succeeded in giving the message we cannot only hit them here but if need arises we can hit them anywhere," Singh said, referring to the surgical strikes carried by the army inside Pakistan-occupied Kashmir. He said after Gurdaspur and Pathankot terror attacks, Pakistan had stated it wanted to cooperate and sent a team to India. "But after the team's return to Pakistan, they refused to allow Indian SIT to visit Pakistan," he said.