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| 06 November 2004 | Saturday | 22 Ramazan 1425 |
Indian army to be readied for N-war
NEW DELHI, Nov 5: The Indian armed forces have to be prepared for the full spectrum of security challenges including the possibility of the use of nuclear weapons and missiles
, the Indian Defence Ministry said in its annual report released on Friday.
The report accused Pakistan of "sponsoring terrorism" in Jammu and Kashmir and said India needed to keep an eye on China's defence cooperation with Islamabad. It also offered arguments in support of India's plans to acquire blue water navy.
Highlighting four key elements fundamental to India's security planning, the report said: "The Indian armed forces have to be prepared for the full spectrum of security challenges from terrorism and low-intensity conflict to conventional war and the possibility of the use of nuclear weapons and missiles."
It said the armed forces were engaged in combating externally inspired low-intensity proxy war, which made their internal security functions -- more than most other armed forces -- requiring a corresponding force structure and orientation.
Pointing to India's interest and responsibilities in the North Indian Ocean, including security of her Extended Economic Zone and island territories, and shipping in the region, the report said there was "the need for a blue water naval capability commensurate with its responsibilities".
PAKISTAN: As usual Pakistan featured prominently in India's threat perceptions and defence engagements. The report said: "Pakistan has been the source of infiltration, cross-border terrorism, military adventurism, nuclear and missile posturing and threats.
"India's strategic location at the centre of the arc of extremist activism and terrorism, amplified by a history of Pakistan's use of it to wage a low-intensity proxy war against India; the prospect of terrorists getting access to weapons of mass destruction and the wanton disregard they have for the lives of other and themselves, require that India be particularly on guard against the phenomenon."
The ministry feels that "the principal threat to peace and stability in the region remains the combinations of fundamentalism and terrorism nurtured in madarssas and training camps in the area and the history ingrained adventurism of a section of the Pakistan military motivated by its obsessive and compulsive hostility towards India."
The report claims that unlike the non-state nature of most domestic and local manifestations of terrorism and the international terrorism of Al Qaeda or the Jemmah Islamiyah, the terrorism faced by India is typically cross-border and state-sponsored.
According to the ministry, diplomacy remained India's chosen means of dealing with these challenges, but effective diplomacy had to be backed by credible military power.
"India's strategic and security interest required a mix of land-based, maritime and air capabilities and a minimum credible deterrent to thwart the threat of use of nuclear weapons against it," the report added.
Referring to India's security preoccupations, the report says, India's location at the centre of an arc of terrorism between North Africa and South East Asia, its close proximity to a key source of nuclear proliferation and the continuing acts of terrorism from across her western border require it to maintain a high level of vigilance and defence preparedness.
The report says India had faced a series of low intensity conflicts such as a proxy war fanned by radical Jehadi outfits and supported by state institutions; insurgencies, in many cases tolerated, aided or abetted by sources from outside India and spillovers of conflicts in neighbouring states.
"At the other end, it inhabits an environment in which two of its neighbours have nuclear weapons and missiles and its immediate neighbourhood has been a source of nuclear proliferation," the report adds.
Dealing with the situation in the Indian sub-continent the report says, despite close and good relations with most of its other immediate neighbours, lesser security problems continue to complicate relationships.
"Bangladesh has not been responsive to India's concerns regarding the presence and activities of Indian insurgent groups from the northeast and the Pakistani Inter-Services Intelligence on Bangladesh soil, large-scale illegal immigration and border crimes," the report claimed.
India and China have stepped up efforts to build mutual trust and confidence. Both sides are trying to address differences over the boundary question and are agreed that pending an ultimate boundary settlement, the two countries would work together to maintain peace and tranquillity in their border areas and continue to implement the agreement signed for this purpose.
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