PM asks CMs to tackle internal security threats

Prime Minister Manmohan Singh said on Sunday that the Centre and the states should launch coordinated efforts to tackle internal security threats. He was addressing the Chief Ministers' Conference on Internal Security in New Delhi. Dr Singh expressed concern over increase in infiltration attempts.

The Prime Minister said hostile groups and elements operate firm across the border to perpetrate terrorism and Jammu and Kashmir faces the brunt of this. Identifying left-wing extremism, cross-border terrorism and insurgency, besides attempts to flare up communal tension as challenges for internal security, he said the states and the Centre should work together to tackle such threats.

Dr Singh said fake Indian currency notes are being printed and smuggled from across the border which need to be tackled with coordinated efforts and recommended the states to set up nodal agencies for investigating seizure of counterfeit currency. The prime minister also reaffirmed his earlier stand that left-wing extremism remains the gravest threat to internal
security.

Earlier, Home Minister P Chidambaram made a strong pitch for strengthening state police forces, especially the intelligence cells and specialised units, to tackle any terror threat. The prime minister said, "Hostile groups and elements operate from across the border to perpetrate terrorist acts in the country. The state of Jammu and Kashmir bears the brunt of the acts of these groups. "There is insurgency and violence in the North-East. Many states are affected by left–wing extremism, which I have in the past referred to as the greatest threat to our internal security. There are also those trying to divide our society on communal and regional lines," the PM. Singh said.

He said in the North-East, the number of incidents had gone down in 2009 as compared to 2008, except in Assam and Arunachal Pradesh. "The number of incidents related to left-wing extremism has, however, increased in the same period, as has the number of civilians and security personnel killed in these incidents. "This is worrisome. The left–wing extremists continue to target vital installations and kill innocent civilians," he said, asking the Chief Ministers to try to find ways of jointly fighting the menace during the conference.

The Prime Minister said the response to left–wing extremism must be calibrated to avoid alienating the people, especially those in tribal areas. "It must also go hand-in-hand with social and economic development of areas affected by left–wing extremism, bringing them into the mainstream of national progress. Tribal communities should get full benefit of our schemes and programmes. This is only possible by improving service delivery in tribal-dominated areas," he said.

Singh said he expected the states to make "fullest possible use" of the National Investigation Agency so that the fight against terrorism can be a forceful and a united one. He said many issues in today's world require a response that is coordinated not only between the affected states but also between the Centre and the states. He also suggested development of specialised commando forces in states, which could be deployed to act as a deterrent to terrorist designs.

New Delhi on Sunday described Pakistan-based terrorist groups as "dark forces" which are "implacably" opposed to the country and asserted that they would be defeated whenever confronted. Home minister P Chidambaram said militant groups like Lashkar-e-Taiba and Hizbul Mujahideen, responsible for innumerable deadly terror strikes in India, held a meeting at Muzaffarabad in Pakistan-occupied-Kashmir on Thursday and it was clear that these groups were "implacably" opposed to India.

"Their weapons are mayhem and violence; and their goal is forcible annexation of Kashmir. Let me make it clear that these dark forces will not succeed in their designs. We will defeat them whenever and wherever we confront them," he said in his opening statement at the conference of chief ministers on Internal Security in New Delhi.

Chidambaram said there had been no significant terrorist attack and no significant communal violence in the last 14 months which was a matter of satisfaction but that did not mean that the country was not vulnerable to terror strikes.

- Asian Tribune -