Military

Security situation in South Asia deteriorated very sharply: India

IRNA - Islamic Republic News Agency

New Delhi, April 7, IRNA -- Citing attacks and violence in neighboring Pakistan, Bangladesh and Sri Lanka, India Tuesday said the security situation in South Asia has deteriorated very, very sharply.

"India's porous borders and commitment to plurality made it a target for militants in neighboring countries," said Home Minister P Chidambaram while talking to reporters at a briefing at AICC headquarters in New Delhi to release his party's national security manifesto.

He was speaking the day after a series of bomb and grenade attacks in Assam killed 10 people, despite intelligence warnings and heightened security.

The minister said there is a determined effort to infiltrate across the international border and the Line of Control in Jammu and Kashmir.

The security forces are on alert and have been able to neutralize these infiltrators in the last three or four weeks.

While India has been working with the governments of Bangladesh and Myanmar to tackle similar problems, in case of Pakistan, it is a very different problem. Mostly, it is state or state agency sponsored infiltration.

The Congress Party's security agenda on Tuesday's afternoon highlights plans for a war-room set-up to handle threats, and includes measures to create a coastal command for maritime security after revelations that the Mumbai gunmen traveled to the city on a hijacked trawler from the Pakistani city of Karachi.

Meanwhile, in the wake of Monday serial blasts in Assam, the Center said the ULFA has waged a virtual war against the country and it has strong reasons to believe that the banned outfit was behind the recent violence in the state.

"It (ULFA) has waged a virtual war against the Indian State for many years. Government has made it clear that it will not yield to ULFA's demands," a Home Ministry statement said, a day after three blasts and a grenade attack rocked the north eastern state killing nine persons and injuring 70.

The government has strong reasons to believe that the perpetrators of these crimes belong to ULFA and it was regrettable that it was not possible for the security forces to pre-empt and prevent these incidents, it said.

While condemning the acts of violence, the statement said, "ULFA is an old adversary. It is a banned organization. Its leaders are operating from sanctuaries across the international border."