Monday, May 16, 2011

prime minister meets service chiefs - after isi warning

prime minister meets service chiefs - after isi warning


Delhi - A day after ISI chief warned that Pakistan had already “identified targets” and “rehearsed” for an attack on India, Prime Minister Manmohan Singh on Monday met the three service chiefs.

Reports said Dr Singh reviewed the defence preparedness of the country with the chiefs of the Army, Navy and Air Force in the wake of hostile comments from Pakistan and the death of al Qaeda chief Osama bin Laden.

On Saturday, the Dawn quoted Inter-Services Intelligence (ISI) chief Ahmed Shuja Pasha as saying that a contingency plan was in place, and that targets inside India had already been identified.

“We have also carried out rehearsal for it,” Pasha said during his in-camera briefing to a joint sitting of the Pakistan Parliament.


Al Qaeda chief Osama bin Laden, who had evaded capture for a decade, was killed on May 02 in a top secret US unilateral military operation involving a small team of Special Forces in Abbottabad, located 50 kilometres northeast of Islamabad and 150 kilometres east of Peshawar.

Commenting on the killing of bin Laden by an elite US task force, Indian Army Chief General VK Singh had said earlier this month that India was capable of conducting similar covert operations to bust extremist hubs across the border.

"I just want to say that if we get the chance, Indian force's three units (Army, Air Force and Navy) are capable of doing such tasks," General Singh told reporters in Lucknow.

The Indian Army also suspects that Pakistan may sneak in more militants into Jammu and Kashmir to divert attention from its "internal problems" post bin Laden killing.


"It is quite likely that Pakistan under pressure, because of so many questions being asked (about Osama), could adopt a strategy of diverting attention which they have always done," General Officer Commanding-in-Chief of Army's northern command Lt General K T Parnaik told reporters.

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