Adding more muscles to the capability of fighting against terrorists across India, the Union Home Minister P Chidamabaram on Wednesday declared the regional hub of elite National Security Guards at Hyderabad operational, and dedicated it to the service of the nation.
'Since I felt there could be more, I had told the local authorities to screen every hostage carefully, since we felt that some could have been staying as guests.' Former NSG director general J K Dutt in an exclusive interview.
Police sources said that four persons have been detained for questioning in connection with Friday's low-intensity bomb blast at The Rameshwaram Cafe.
Preceding the two-day plenary of the 48-member NSG, which began on Thursday, China had repeatedly said that India's membership was not on the agenda and is said to have made every effort to prevent any discussion on India's bid.
Although the credit for acquiring the technological skill must be given to India's outstanding nuclear scientists, the decision to go nuclear was a political one that entailed clarity of vision, courage and resolve, points out Rup Narayan Das.
India's efforts to join the grouping suffered a setback in June when the NSG plenary decided against accepting its membership application after China and some other nations opposed entry of a non- Non-Proliferation Treaty signatory.
In an attempt to kickstart the process of setting up National Security Guard hubs in the country in the aftermath of the Mumbai terror attacks, Home Minister P Chidambaram on Tuesday discussed the matter with Army and NSG Chiefs. During the hour-long meeting, Chidambaram sought assistance from the army to operationalise the hubs in Mumbai, Kolkata, Chennai and Hyderabad in the first phase, Home Ministry sources said.
India could expect the support of Japan at the upcoming Nuclear Suppliers Group meeting, with a senior official of the country saying that Tokyo understands New Delhi's energy needs and would adopt an approach that strengthens the non-proliferation regime.Japanese Foreign Ministry spokesman Kazuo Kodama noted that Tokyo had gone with consensus at the International Atomic Energy Agency's Board of Governors meeting on India-specific safeguards despite having reservations.
A Cabinet Committee on Security meeting will be held on Tuesday, which will take up the issue of deployment of NSG in places like Mumbai, Bangalore, Hyderabad and Chennai, where there is a need for beefing up security.
Russia on Friday assured that India would continue to enjoy the waiver it received in 2008 from the Nuclear Suppliers Group's export ban and Moscow wants New Delhi's full participation in the 45-nation grouping that regulates global atomic commerce. Russia's assurance came after India objected to the new guidelines adopted in June by the NSG on the export of nuclear enrichment and reprocessing equipment.
The Nuclear Suppliers Group finally gave its nod to the India-specific waiver on Saturday.The decision came after the NSG held fresh rounds of unscheduled discussions on grant of a waiver for India, after marathon parleys on Friday failed to produce a consensus, with China joining a clutch of countries having reservations over the move.Diplomats from 45 countries constituting the nuclear cartel had been engaged in hectic and tough negotiations.
Despite its strong views on non-proliferation issues, Switzerland is unlikely to block the waiver for India at the NSG meet even as it officially says it is yet to firm up its stand on the matter.
Ahead of the meeting of the Nuclear Suppliers Group, India has said it will not accept the waiver from the 45-nation grouping if the 'red lines' set by it are crossed. National Security Adviser M K Narayanan made it clear that inclusion of any clause on testing, periodic review or denial of enrichment and reprocessing technology in the text of the NSG waiver would be unacceptable and hoped a way around these issues would be found through diplomatic efforts.
The flight was diverted to the Jamnagar airport following a bomb threat and made a safe emergency landing there at 9.49 pm on Monday, officials had said.
The NSG will work along with the Special Investigation Team and the City Crime Branch.
The National Security Guard, which is engaged in a gun battle with the terrorists at Taj Hotel in Mumbai, said all but one terrorists were killed in the encounter and hoped to wrap up the flush-out operation at the Trident-Oberoi hotel and Nariman House very soon."There is one terrorist in the Taj Hotel. He has been injured and I think we will be able to mop up the operation there very quickly," Director General of NSG J K Dutt said.
In a significant development, Australia on Tuesday promised to support the Indo-US civil nuclear deal in the Nuclear Suppliers Group and indicated its readiness to supply uranium to India.
Wang and Swaraj also discussed issues relating to annual BRICS summit which will be hosted by India in Goa in October.
US Ambassador to India David C Mulford, who is in Vienna for meetings on the sidelines of the two-day NSG meeting considering India's case ending Friday, told NDTV that Washington thinks that eventually a consensus would be arrived at on the issue, but it does not not know how quickly.
To thwart any aerial threat during the Commonwealth Games, about 150 personnel of the Delhi Police's Special Weapons and Tactics Team have been trained by the Indian Air Force and the National Security Guard to shoot down suspicious manned and unmanned "flying objects".
In a significant announcement during United States President Barack Obama's visit, the US on Saturday said it will support India's full membership in the 45-member Nuclear Suppliers Group and three other multilateral export control regimes.
The outgoing Obama Administration has hit out at China for blocking India's entry into the elite NSG by describing the communist giant an "outlier".
Man held for sending email threatening attack on Narendra Modi Stadium in Ahmedabad
A former National Security Guard commando, who fought terrorists in the 26/11 attack and was invalidated from service after he became medically unfit, on Thursday claimed he has not got any financial benefits or pension and the money 'gifted' to him and his colleagues.
The Mumbai CP said that shifting of IPL semi-finals due to the spate of bomb blasts in Bengaluru recently to Navi Mumbai is a compliment to capability of the Mumbai and Maharashtra police.
A National Security Guard team has collected samples from the site of the blast in Pune that took 11 lives.
Two National Security Guards personnel, including an officer, were on Friday were killed and six other commandos injured during operations against terrorists in Mumbai, the first casualties suffered by the elite force during the siege.
About 200 additional commandos of the elite National Security Guards were sent on Thursday as reinforcements to deal with the situation arising out of the terror attacks in the metropolis.
The Mangalore police have picked up eight persons in connection with the alleged murder of an National Security Guard commando who used to be part of L K Advanis security cordon.
Chief Minister Raman Singh will get 'Z plus' protection with NSG commandos throwing a security cordon around him in Chhattisgarh which witnessed heightened Naxal threat after the killing of top Congress leaders.
Hectic negotiations on India getting NSG waiver are going down to the wire with last-minute changes being pushed by sceptic countries to incorporate their concerns in the draft to hammer out a consensus.After four rounds of discussions that spilled over late into Friday night, Austria, which was among a couple of countries holding out, gave enough indications that 'more work still' needs to be done that will enable India cross a major hurdle in operationalising the N-deal.
Three days after the terrorists took over the Trident and the Oberoi, the former has finally been handed back to the management. The latter is still in the control of the NSG.
Union Home Minister P Chidambaram on Friday said that the country will have more National Security Guard hubs in the future to tackle the threat of terrorism. The home minister read out a statement to media persons, following his visit to the anti-terrorist hub established by the army in Bengaluru.
Terming the waiver granted to India by the 45-member Nuclear Suppliers group as a 'huge step' in the relationship between the United States and India, Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice has complimented the role played by the Indian government in Vienna.In comments made to the traveling press in Algiers on Saturday, Rice said India showed a lot of leadership skills in Vienna, where everybody took everyone else's concerns seriously and found the ways to bridge it.
"US is still working on the revised draft and India is still demanding 'clean and unconditional' waiver. While there is still a distance to go, the proposal to give India a clean exemption from global nuclear trade standards is in deep trouble," Daryl Kimball, the Executive Director of the Arms Control Association, has said."It is vital that these and other states stand their ground," Kimball maintained.
Ahead of next week's crucial meeting of the Nuclear Suppliers Group, a top Swiss lawmaker has said his government will 'most likely' support a waiver for India at the 45-nation grouping."The Indo-US nuclear deal is important for India's energy security and I think the Swiss government will most likely support the waiver for New Delhi at the NSG meet," Speaker of the Upper House of Swiss Parliament Christoffel Brandil told PTI.
Daryl Kimball, executive director of the Washington, DC-based Arms Control Association believes India's expectation of a 'clean exemption' at the Nuclear Suppliers Group meeting scheduled for August 21 is "a fantasy".
Buoyed by the International Atomic Energy Agency's approval of the India-specific safeguards pact, the US on Sunday vowed to push through expeditiously the Nuclear Suppliers Group process but said New Delhi would have to answer a lot of questions to secure a waiver from the 45-nation bloc when it meets later this month.
Lt Colonel E K Niranjan was undertaking a mopping up and render safe procedure on the encounter spot when a blast occurred and splinters and sharpnels hit the officer fatally.
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