India unprepared against terror threats: PM

NEVER AGAIN? The Taj Mahal hotel during a gun battle in Mumbai on November 29.

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New Delhi: The country’s security system is “inadequate” to deal with numerous and needs to be improved significantly, said Prime Minister Manmohan Singh on Tuesday.

“Our defence mechanisms to deal with numerous threats are inadequate,” the Prime Minister said while admitting that there had been a security lapse in the November 26-29 terror attack in Mumbai.

"The terrorists who carried out the attack on Mumbai used the sea route and managed to evade our surveillance," he told a conference of Chief Ministers on national security in New Delhi. The security situation over the last 12 months had "become even more complex".

Singh alleged the sophistication of the Mumbai terrorist attacks indicates that Pakistani authorities must have had a hand in the attack, but he was careful not to directly accuse Islamabad.

The sophistication of the Mumbai terrorist attacks indicates the attackers "must have had the support of some official agencies in Pakistan," said Prime Minister Manmohan Singh on Tuesday.

“Today even as Pakistan engages in whipping up war hysteria, our nation remains steadfastly united and if anything the process of national consolidation is becoming stronger," said Singh.

"The terrorist attack in Mumbai in November last year was carried out by a Pakistan-based outfit, the Lashkar-e-Toiba." "There is enough evidence to show that, given the sophistication and military precision of the attack it must have had the support of some official agencies in Pakistan," Singh said.

"A strong sense of nationhood is important," he said, to counter external and internal threats. "The situation may appear challenging and it is challenging but it is by no means beyond our control."

Asserting that there "was an attempt to exploit our vulnerabilities", Singh added that India's "problems are compounded by the fact that we have an uncertain security environment in our neighbourhood".

The more fragile the government, the more dangerous it was, he said. Pakistan's responses were an "obvious example".

Without naming Bangladesh, Singh said terrorists operating in India’s northeast states are being sheltered in a neighbouring country. "Unfortunately we cannot choose our neighbours," the Prime Minister said.

According to the Prime Minister, there was need to review the effectiveness of India's security set up. A review of the training and equipment for the security forces was also called for.

He said infiltration was also taking place from Bangladesh and Nepal though it had not ceased from the Line of Control (LoC)—that divides Kashmir between India and Pakistan.

The Prime Minister said that India must "implement a policy of zero tolerance" towards terrorism and few countries had suffered from terror attacks in the way that India had.

The coordinated strikes in Mumbai by 10 gunmen killed 179 people, and have revived hostilities between the two countries that have fought three wars since 1947. India handed over evidence on Monday to Pakistan that it said linked Pakistani militants to the Mumbai attacks, including data from satellite phones and the confession of a surviving attacker.