New Delhi, April 08: The worst-ever Naxal attack in Chhattisgarh and the forthcoming visit of Prime Minister Manmohan Singh to the US for the Nuclear Security Summit are understood to have figured in the meeting of the Cabinet Committee on Security (CCS) today. Chaired by Singh, the meeting is said to have discussed the internal security situation following the Naxal attack in Dantewada in which 76 security personnel were massacred, according to government sources.
The use of air power of the IAF against the ultras was a deliberated at the meeting but there was no official word on decisions, if any. Though the IAF had made a plea to the government to permit it to fire upon the Naxals in self-defence last October, the idea was shot down then.
Home Minister P Chidambaram rekindled the debate when he had said at Jagadalpur yesterday that the government could revisit the ”no air power use” policy in the fight against Maoists. However, IAF Chief Air Chief Marshal P V Naik disfavoured such a move and the Prime Minister said that no decision had been taken on it yet.
With the Prime Minister scheduled to leave for the Nuclear Security Summit in the US on Saturday, the CCS also considered policy issues for firming up India”s stand ahead of his trip, in view of growing concerns over the possibility of nuclear weapons falling into the hands of terrorists, sources said. The Prime Minister will join leaders of 42 other countries in Washington on April 12 to discuss ways to strengthen the global initiatives to prevent such a scenario.
—PTI–