May 11: Home minister P. Chidambaram has said that overcoming the insurgency in the Northeast and Naxalism was “within our control” but combating terrorism of the jihadi kind posed a “more difficult problem”.
He noted that the phenomenon of cross-border terrorism was “not entirely within our control” and “it goes beyond Pakistan” to countries in West Asia. Therefore, there might be a need to redefine cross-border terrorism as was commonly understood in India.
Mr Chidambaram was speaking here Tuesday after releasing the book, The Long View From Delhi: To define the Indian grand strategy for foreign policy, written by Admiral Raja Menon, a former assistant chief of naval staff (operations), and Dr Rajiv Kumar, director of the Indian Council for Research on International Economic Relations.
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New body to build roads soon?
Age Correspondent
New Delhi
May 11: With the Border Roads Organisation told to focus on building strategic roads in border areas, the government is contemplating setting up of another organisation to build roads in other states, defence minister A.K. Antony said on Tuesday. The government has also authorised the BRO to outsource the job of airlifting machinery and material to difficult terrain “as the assets of Indian Air Force in this regard are overstretched”, the minister added.
The BRO had recently “relocated” manpower on a road project from Naxal-affected Chhattisgarh to Sikkim.