LeT moles in Air Force?

NEW DELHI: In a development which is certain to serve as a chilling reminder of the enormity of the problem posed by the activities of jehadis and their handlers in the country, fears have been expressed about the possibility of the Indian Air Force being infiltrated by elements belonging to the Lashkar-e-Toiba, the dreaded Pakistan-based terror outfit believed to be responsible for triggering the recent serial blasts in Mumbai.

Alarmingly, these apprehensions have been conveyed not by the media or the Opposition, but by national security advisor MK Narayanan, the man tasked by the Manmohan Singh government to co-ordinate all security-related issues in the country.

In a letter written to chief ministers of various states on November 30 last, he drew their attention to the possibility of the LeT cadre making their way into the IAF and urged them to remain on guard.

Details of the letter were accessed, and aired on Friday, by Times Now. Besides reinforcing India’s image as a country under siege, it is bound to lend weight to the Opposition charge that the Manmohan Singh government was not doing enough to contain jehadi terror.

In the past few days, critics claim, this perception has been strengthened by the Prime Minister’s flip-flop on the fate of peace talks with Pakistan, post-7/11. After an initial phase of tough talking, Mr Singh seems to have decided to modulate his response to go along with those stressing the need to improve ties with Islamabad.

For its part, the BJP on Friday afternoon pounced on the Times Now report to pillory the UPA government for its “dubious track-record” on the internal security front.

“The Prime Minister had on Thursday said that our national preparation in tackling terrorism is inadequate, and today we have this expose. If the government had such information, what has it done till now to get to the bottom of things,” BJP spokesman Arun Jaitley asked.

The armed forces, he maintained, were virtually the last bastion to protect national security. “If this report is true, it shows the aggressive mode the terrorists have adopted by embarking on a mission to wreck our institutions from within.

If the earlier blasts were enough to act as a wake-up call for the government, the latest disclosure should now shake up the government,” the BJP general secretary said.

Mr Narayanan, in his letter, which was sent along with a 40-page report from the National Security Council secretariat, paints a grim picture. “The activities of jehadi groups within India are clearly on the increase and have now assumed alarming proportions in terms of capability potential and strategy.”

The report then proceeds to say that “reports of two Lashkar-e-Toiba cadres having joined the Indian Air Force need to be taken seriously.”