PM briefed on India's military preparedness

Prime Minister Manmohan Singh on Wednesday received a secret briefing at the Army’s war room on India's military preparedness along the eastern and western borders.

Besides the prime minister, Defence Minister A K Antony and Army chief Gen Bikram Singh were present at the briefing given by senior officers from the Directorate of Military Operations. But Defence Ministry and Army officials were tight-lipped about details of the unusual conference in the South Block.

“It was a routine security briefing that happens every month. It happens at the prime minister's Race Course Road residence. This time he decided to go there (war room),” sources in the Prime Minister's Office told Deccan Herald.

Incidentally, Singh was given the briefing a day after the Army's elite Strategic Forces Command (SFC) successfully launched a nuclear-capable Prithvi missile. “The aim of this exercise was to validate our readiness by undertaking launches in various contingencies,” a spokesperson of the SFC said on Tuesday.

Launch of the Prithvi missile – inducted into the SFC in 2003 to strengthen India's nuclear deterrence – from Chandipur was part of a scenario-based live launch training exercise.

New Delhi witnessed signs of hostility along both eastern and western borders in the last one year as armies from China and Pakistan continued to create troubles at the border. In addition to infiltration attempts aided by Pakistani army regulars and frequent ceasefire violations, Indian soldiers deployed on the Pakistan border were beheaded.

On the eastern front, Chinese troops were frequently intruding into the disputed territory along the Line of Actual Control (LAC).