Indian service chiefs brief PM on security situation in country

NEW DELHI: Prime Minister Manmohan Singh on Monday met the three service chiefs to make a fresh assessment of the security situation.

The meeting with the chiefs of Army, Navy and Air Force came a day after Pakistan’s spy chief, Shuja Pasha, had reportedly told that Islamabad had “identified targets” and carried out “rehearsal” for an attack on India. The Indian security establishment is not giving much credence to Pasha’s claim and his bellicosity is seen as something aimed at hiding his own failure to detect the raid on the hideout of al-Qaeda chief Osama bin Laden.

In his in-camera address to the joint session of the Senate and National Assembly of Pakistan on Friday, Pasha had warned India that any Abbottabad-like attack by it would invite a befitting response from Pakistan. The meeting, convened by the prime minister to assess the security situation, was attended by defence Minister AK Antony and National Security Advisor Shivshankar Menon.

Army Chief General VK Singh, Navy Chief Admiral Nirmal Verma and Air Force Chief Air Chief Marshal PV Naik informed the prime minister about the preparedness of the armed forces. “The Prime Minister was briefed on the overall security measures and the general preparedness of the defence forces. Issues like changing security situation in Pakistan and the situation along the Sino-Indian border were discussed,” defence ministry officials said.

They also said that the Army has raised its alertness level in the wake of reports that Pakistan may try to infiltrate militants into Jammu and Kashmir. There are concerns in western capitals over Pakistan’s nuclear weapons programme in the light of its growing internal instability. Western experts have been maintaining about increased activity in Pakistan on the nuclear programme in the recent months.

A Newsweek report, based on commercial satellite images obtained by it, has said that there was evidence to show that construction activity was on full swing at the Khushab nuclear site. This facility is barely 140 km south of Islamabad. Pakistani officials interviewed by the news magazine claimed that the buildup was in response to “threat” from India.