Home Ministry officials heave a sigh of relief

By Our Special Correspondent

NEW DELHI, DEC. 26. Senior Home Ministry officials as well as sources within the Intelligence Bureau declared themselves fully satisfied over the nabbing of the Red Fort ``attackers'' this morning. ``It was an excellent operation,'' a senior IB official said.

This sense of satisfaction was shared by top officials of the Vajpayee administration, and the information about the ``success'' was conveyed to the Prime Minister before he left on a holiday. Mr. Vajpayee was reportedly unhappy that the attackers were allowed to escape; today, it was a very satisfied security establishment that told him that the score had been settled.

There were, obviously, red faces after the Red Fort incident. Defence Ministry officials were at the receiving end of a lot of snide remarks. But today's ``success'' is being bandied about as the re-affirmation of the soundness of the basic security structure.

It is believed that the Prime Minister was also briefed about latest developments in the car-bomb blast near the 15 Corps Headquarters in Srinagar. Security experts are still at a loss to figure out why such a large amount of explosives were placed in the car.

According to available information, the culprits involved in the attack on Red Fort could have been apprehended within 24 hours of the attack, but a ``mechanical failure'' caused the loss of a crucial one hour, delaying the operation. The police were able to pin these characters down only after telephonic intercepts could be decoded.

Senior intelligence officers were confident about the identity of the killed Lashkar-e-Taiba militant. Nor is there any doubt about the involvement of a Pakistani ``operative'', who was running a cyber cafe in the area.

Nonetheless, these incidents have not come as a surprise, and sources within the Vajpayee administration suggest that various outfits in Islamabad would be disappointed if they thought India could be so easily provoked into reconsidering the ceasefire strategy.

The officials dismissed as ``a lot of hot air'' the threats issued by militant outfits in Srinagar that they could strike at the Prime Minister's Office or residence.

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