Date:06/10/2006 URL: http://www.thehindu.com/2006/10/06/stories/2006100604091400.htm

National

Internal security reviewed

Special Correspondent

NEW DELHI: Ahead of the festival season of Diwali and Id, the Centre on Thursday held a high-level meeting to review the internal security situation. The meeting came in the wake of intelligence reports that terror strikes could take place during season on the lines of last October's terrorist strike in a busy market place in the Capital.

National Security Adviser M.K. Narayanan held discussions with Union Home Secretary V.K. Duggal and Special Secretary (Internal Security) G.S. Rajagopal and other senior Home Ministry officials.

Official sources said that the overall security situation was reviewed. The meeting is also understood to have discussed the situation in Srinagar, where two militants holed up in a hotel in Lal Chowk area were on Thursday shot dead by security forces after a 20-hour gunbattle. Seven security personnel lost their lives in the encounter.

Sources said that heightened security arrangements at major airports in the wake of hijack threat, vital installations, railway stations and trains also came up for review. The situation in North-Eastern States and ongoing operations in Assam against ULFA and the situation in naxal-violence affected 13 States also figured. It was emphasised that efforts should be further strengthened to maintain communal harmony, the role of community leaders and the interaction of local police with them, sources said.