PUNE, 25 July 2006 — Defense Minister Pranab Mukherjee outright denied the presence of two Lashkar-e-Taiba activists in the Indian Air Force. However, Pranab admitted that the National Security Adviser (NSA), M.K. Narayanan, had sent letters to the chief secretaries of the states last month mentioning the possibility of two LeT agents infiltrating the Indian Air Force.
In order to lay to rest the controversy surrounding the two Lashkar activists, Pranab told journalists that the Air Force and intelligence agencies had carried out exhaustive checks and it was found that there was no truth whatsoever in media reports about this. Pranab was speaking on the sidelines of the convocation of the Tilak Maharashtra College in Pune on Sunday.
“The annexure attached to the letter of NSA is a year-old document that makes the assumption of infiltration of terrorists in the IAF,” Pranab said. He reacted sharply to a query on some VVIPs being exempted from security checks at airports. “Do VVIPs pose security threats?” he questioned to justify the exemption. When asked about the same for the service chiefs, the defense minister got angry and did not reply.
The defense minister also disclosed that a panel would decide on the combat role for women in the Indian armed forces. Following a study of Armed Forces Medical Services which stated that women were fit for combat, Pranab said that the chief of staff committee will look into the aspect of women being given combat roles and permanent commission into the armed forces.
Pranab added that the discrepancy between men and women under Short Service Commission has been removed and now women can work for 14 years under SSC and can rise above the rank of a captain. Previously, under the SSC, women would only be allowed a 10-year term and could not rise about the rank of captain.
In another surprise development, security was beefed up at the offices of the commissioner of police in Pune, the crime branch, the traffic branch, and other offices situated in the campus of the CP’s office. For the first time in the history of Pune police department, police buildings and campus have seen an unprecedented security, with a large number of police commandos armed with weapons, checking each and every visitor including policemen in civilian dress entering the campus from the two entry gates and at the main entrance and each floor of the office building.
A senior police official said that the move was made in view of the bomb blasts that took place in Bombay two weeks ago. Though people were not frisked, no one was allowed entry with proving their identifications. Those who were most harassed and uncomfortable with the checks were foreigners and Indian citizens who had come to visit the Foreigners Branch situated on the ground floor of the main building due to passport related issues.
“This is a public building, not a prohibited place, where people coming for their work cannot be harassed in the name of security. Though we all think and consider security a safety measure, the police can well do the job by having a metal detector gate installed at the entrances of the building, where people can walk through, just as we do at the airports,” said a student from Bahrain.
Even the surprise implementation of security took the policemen by surprise. “The police commissioner office is not looking like a public place, but more like a fortress,” said a senior police official speaking on condition of anonymity. So much so that even journalists, who so far had easy access to several police officials and offices in the building, were asked to prove their identity at eight various places.
The public relations officer at Pune police station, Senior Police Inspector Satish Jadhav, said that he too was in the dark about the reasons of such a heightened security.
