Enemy within? Alert in Indian Army

New Delhi: If the objective of the terrorist is to strike fear and confusion in the establishment, he seems to have succeeded this time -- at least partially. On Wednesday, the Home and Defence ministries seemed to be talking in different voices about the arrest of Armymen for suspected links with the Lashkar-e-Toiba.

"Home Minister did not mislead the House. Thought they belong to Jammu and Kashmir Rifles, currently they are deployed -- two are deployed in Rashtriya Rifles and one in Jammu and Kashmir," Defence Minister Pranab Mukherjee says.

So, infiltration is now not just about terrorists crossing the Line of Control. It's also about the armed forces constantly looking over their shoulder for a threat from within their own ranks.

The vulnerability of troops recruited from troubled areas to terrorist coercion or influence is nothing new, the Army admits privately. But this vulnerability is now out in the public domain.

The National Security Adviser, who a few months ago, warned the armed forces about attempts by militants to infiltrate the military, does not want to publicly concede an advantage to terrorists.

"The Indian Air Force has done a tremendous job and has found out that there is no infiltration in the Air Force. The Wednesday incident, in which two Army jawans were detained, cannot be termed as infiltration because they were doing it under pressure as their families were under threat. We are guarding against any imminent threat. We are doing a job of providing intelligence input," Narayanan claims.

While the security establishment insists that there's nothing to worry about, the terrorists seem to be a step ahead in the mind game. If they can keep the forces guessing about a threat from within, they would have struck a psychological blow.

On its part, the Army is putting up a brave front, not letting its vulnerability show. In addition to the significant troop recruitment from Kashmir, eight more home and hearth battalions of the territorial Army are being raised in Kashmir. The Army is going ahead with an even more daring venture of raising another battalion consisting of surrendered militants.

(With Smita Nair)

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