Security situation

Cautious that Pakistan may try to slip into a misadventure against India after Osama bin Laden’s unilateral elimination by the US, Indian Prime Minister Manmohan Singh decided to call a meeting to take stock of how India’s security forces would respond in case of such a scenario and to discuss the strategic fallout in the region.

Reports of the presence of Chinese soldiers in Pakistani-administered Kashmir were also discussed, as was the protection of India's nuclear assets.

The security review assumed particular significance as it came days after Prime Minister Singh held talks with Afghan President Hamid Karzai in Kabul and less than a week before Defence Minister A K Antony is expected to be briefed on overall security, including of the coastal region by India’s maritime agencies.

"Whenever Pakistan has had intense turbulence, as we saw after the creation of Bangladesh in the 1971 war or during other national crises, there have been developments with the potential to adversely impact India," explained strategic affairs expert Uday Bhaskar.

"Given these sensitivities, I think the PM's meeting was in keeping with the security compulsions of the day," he added.

ISI warning to India

However, the real trigger for the meeting may have been a warning to India by Pakistan's ISI chief Ahmed Shuja Pasha that any Indian "Abbottabad-like" attack would invite a befitting response from Pakistan as targets inside the country "had already been identified" and "rehearsals" carried out.

Al Qaeda head Osama bin Laden was killed in a US raid on a compound in Abbottabad at the beginning of May that Washington did not inform Islamabad about.

Rajesh Rajagopalan, a professor of international politics at Jawaharlal Nehru University thought India was right to not have reacted abruptly to the ISI's provocative remarks and to have called a meeting to review security conditions.

"I don't think there is any immediate need for India to worry because these are fairly usual kind of statements," he said, adding that the decision not to make any public statements was correct "because you don't want to give them any more excuses for attempting to divert attention again."

This was a sentiment that Bhaskar agreed with. "Since Pakistan is smarting under the Abbotabad operation, they have very conveniently and almost like a reflex action diverted attention towards India," he said.

Most-wanted terrorist list released

Since bin Laden's killing, New Delhi has also upped the ante against Pakistan, demanding the extradition of fugitives from Indian law, who took refuge there after committing crimes on Indian soil.

India has also released a list of 50 of its most-wanted terrorists that includes those held responsible for the Mumbai terror attacks of November 2008.

At the highest levels, however, India has determined that it would serve no purpose to add to Pakistan's embarrassment after the raid in Abbottabad. India may well have the capability to carry out such an operation but the risk of unequal reprisals from Pakistan could be too high.

Author: Murali Krishnan
Editor: Anne Thomas