Disclosing that as many as a dozen terror plots had been foiled in the past one year, Home Minister P Chidambaram today said that the Lashkar-e-Toiba has links with al-Qaeda and these terror groups are now coordinating their action.
Replying to a short-duration discussion in Rajya Sabha today, Chidambaram said: ?We are as vulnerable today as we were a few months ago. Groups like LeT are now coordinating their action. One of these groups appears to have forged ties with al-Qaeda.?
Though there has not been any terrorist attack in the last one year, the country, he said, cannot lower its guard because ?our adversary has not changed its attitude.?
?The epicentre of cross-border terrorism is the junction point of Afghanistan and Pakistan and since India is in the region, (so) we are vulnerable,? Chidambaram said.
He said the government policy would be zero-tolerance towards jihadi or Hindu militancy as ?both are terrorism?. After the BJP objected to his remark on ?Hindu militancy?, Chidambaram said whether it was Islamic terrorism or Hindu militancy, there had to be zero-tolerance.
On the cross-border threat, he said, ?Our security forces have the capacity to prevent any terror attack. God forbid, should there be any terrorist attack, our response will be swift and decisive.?
?While terrorist and insurgents choose the time to attack and they have to be lucky just once to succeed, we have to be lucky every time to foil these things,? he said.
On the situation in Jammu and Kashmir, Chidambaram said the Centre is willing to take ?what appears to be a risky step? of withdrawing security forces and hand over law and order to the state police. ?I would take what appears to be a risky step of withdrawing a significant number of battalions of security forces in J&K. We are now transferring more and more law and order (duties) to J&K police,? he said.