Indian PM discusses national security with top brass

New Delhi, Aug 1 (PTI) The security scenario in India
came up for a review at a meeting of the National Security
Council chaired by Prime Minister Manmohan Singh here
Saturday.

The meeting comes in the wake of intelligence reports of
possible terror threats via sea to western Indian states of
Maharashtra and Goa, which led to the Navy and Coast Guard
launching operations to locate a rogue ship in the Arabian
Sea.

The search by Navy and Coast Guard was still on though
there was no result even 24 hours after the operation was
launched, sources said. The heightened coastal security alert
comes against the backdrop of the audacious terrorist attacks
in Mumbai on November 26 last year.

The nearly three-hour-long meeting, attended by Union
ministers A K Antony, P Chidambaram and S M Krishna, and
National Security Advisor M K Narayanan, is also said to have
reviewed the security arrangements for the ongoing Amarnath
Yatra, an annual pilgrimage, in Jammu and Kashmir.

This year's Amarnath Yatra has been incident-free and
the government would like to keep it this way through the rest
of the yatra period this year, sources said.

Though the meeting discussed all internal threat issues,
the external threats from neighbouring countries did not
figure in the meeting, PMO sources told PTI.

Others who attended the meeting include Principal
Secretary to Prime Minister T K A Nair, Home Secretary G K
Pillai, Defence Secretary Pradeep Kumar and Foreign Secretary
Nirupama Rao, apart from Research and Analytic Wing (RAW)
secretary and Director Intelligence Bureau.

Also present during the discussions were Navy Chief
Admiral Sureesh Mehta, Army Chief General Deepak Kapoor and
Air Chief Marshal P V Naik. PTI NCB
DDC
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