PM chairs high-level national security meet

Prime Minister Manmohan Singh on Saturday chaired a high-level national security meeting to discuss the situation arising out of intelligence alerts over possible terror threats via sea to Maharashtra and Goa.

Attended by the country's top security officials, the two-and-a-half hour meeting is also believed to have discussed the security situation in Jammu and Kashmir, in the wake of the Amarnath Yatra scheduled to start next week, sources said.

The meeting, held at the prime minister's residence, was attended by Finance Minister Pranab Mukherjee, Defence Minister A K Antony, Home Minister P Chidambaram, National Security Advisor M K Narayanan and new Foreign Secretary Nirupama Rao. Also present during the discussions were Navy Chief Admiral Sureesh Mehta, Army Chief General Deepak Kapoor and Air Chief Marshal P V Naik.

"Navy and Coast Guard were put on high alert on Friday to locate a suspicious vessel that was lurking in the waters of Arabian Sea off the Maharashtra and Goa coasts. The search is still on," the sources said.

The heightened security alert comes against the backdrop of the audacious terrorist attacks in Mumbai on November 26 last year. Among the other issues that came up during the discussions was the mammoth Chinese military exercise that is currently in progress.