September 4, 2003	Thursday	Rajab 6, 1424

NEW DELHI, Sept 3: India will spend more than three billion rupees (65 million dollars) to raise “lethal units” in its infantry battalions to counter terrorism, Defence Secretary Ajay Prasad announced on Wednesday.

Prasad said the decision was made on Wednesday by the security cabinet presided over by Prime Minister Atal Behari Vajpayee.

“The securety cabinet has also decided to authorise the modernisation of battalions with enhanced firepower, state-of-art communication equipment and night-vision capabilty through hand-held thermal imagers,” Prasad said.

He said the platoons would be carved from the existing batallions of India’s million-plus army and armed with lethal weaponry, part of which will be imported from the international arms bazaar.

“The lethal units will be ready by 2007,” Prasad told a crowded press conference after the security cabinet meeting.

The defence secretary said the military will also spend an additional 2.9 billion rupees (62 million dollars) over the next two years to create special units to deal with landmines and other ambushes involving explosives.

“Keeping in view rampant terrorism it has been decided to create special units to neutralise improvised explosive devices,” he said, adding that a “sizeable number” of such units will be raised in the army’s engineering, infantry and other formations.—AFP