Terrorists devising new strategies to strike: Rajnath

Gurugram, Oct 16 (IANS) Union Home Minister Rajnath Singh on Tuesday said that terrorists have been devising new strategies to strike and warned that increased use of the social media by anti-national forces is a new threat. Speaking here on the occasion of the National Security Guard (NSG) Raising Day, the Minister, however, expressed confidence that the country's security forces are capable enough to deal with any threat. After the 2008 Mumbai terror attack, no major terror incident has happened in India, Rajnath said and credited the country's security forces for bringing about this feel of security to the nation. He termed the National Security Guard (NSG) a world-class force, and said that earlier this year, a unit of the NSG commandos was deployed in Jammu and Kashmir, for the first time. The Minister said that NSG troopers are generally called "Better than the Rest", but he believed that the Black Cats are "Better than the Best". NSG Director General Sudeep Lakhtakia said that commando teams will be kept at the disposal of the Jammu and Kashmir Police, the nodal agency for all anti-militancy operations. "Commandos would be helpful in a situation where room-to-room intervention is required," he pointed out. The move to deploy NSG 'Black Cats' in the Valley came in the wake of increasing incidents of encounters where security forces lost many troopers during the high-risk house intervention operations in populated Kashmir localities, DG Lakhtakia said. On the occasion, the Home Minister also announced that the minimum compensation for a martyr's kin has been raised to Rs one crore. "This compensation may be increased, but not reduced." Family members of 14 martyrs were also honoured by the Minister at the function. --IANS