New Delhi: In a strong message to Pakistan, Prime Minister Manmohan Singh today said anti-India activities emanating from there will have to stop for relations to improve.

Addressing the nation on the 67th Independence Day from the ramparts of Red Fort, the Prime Minister asserted that India has strived for friendship with its neighbouring countries. “However, for relations with Pakistan to improve it is essential they prevent the use of their territory and territory under their control for any anti-India activity,” he said. (Read full text of the PM’s speech)

Referring to the August 6 killing of five Indian soldiers by Pakistan Army in a cross-LoC attack in Poonch sector of Jammu and Kashmir as a “dastardly” act, he said “we will take all possible steps to prevent such incidents in the future.”

Dr Singh, in his 10th consecutive Independence Day address and his last before the 2014 Lok Sabha elections, stressed  that there was a need to strengthen secular traditions to promote tolerance.

In his 30-minute speech, Dr Singh also appeared to target the BJP and Gujarat Chief Minister Narendra Modi, saying there was no place for “narrow and sectarian ideologies” in modern,
progressive and secular India. “We should prevent them from growing,” he said.

He warned such ideologies will “divide” society and “weaken our democracy”.