Manmohan Singh holds war room meet to review security

New Delhi, Dec 21: Manmohan Singh, Indian Prime Minister Manmohan chaired a high-level war room meeting in New Delhi on Saturday, Dec 20 evening with senior ministers and defence chiefs to discuss the security preparedness. The meeting which lasted for over 4 hours, discussed India's security preparedness and selective strikes on terror camps across the border.

A K Anthony, the Union Defence Minister, Pranab Mukherjee, the External Affairs Minister, Home Minister P Chidambaram, National Security Advisor M K Narayan and all three Service Chiefs and intelligence chiefs attended the meeting. The meeting assumes significance as there is heightened terror threat and tension with Pakistan. The Union government has already declared that it is keeping all options open which include aerial strikes on Pak, on dealing with any external threat follwoing the 26/11 Mumbai terror attacks carried out by Pakistani terrorists.

Earlier the day, A K Antony had a separate meet with the Coast Guard and Defence Ministry officials to review the security of Indian coastline where he cleared the acquisition proposals for the sea-guarding agency. External Affairs Minister Pranab Mukherjee had on Friday, Dec 19 warned that India was keeping all options open to protect itself.

"Terrorism remains a scourge for our region. If a country cannot keep the assurances that it has given, then it obliges us to consider the entire range of options that exist to protect our interests and people from this menace," Mukherjee had said in Gangtok, referring to Pakistan.

The three defence forces are on high alert since Nov 26 after 10 Pakistan-trained Lashkar-e-Toiba (LeT) terrorists attacked major landmarks in Mumbai killing more than 200 people including several foreign nationals and injured over 300.

OneIndia News (With inputs from Agencies)