Maharashtra to step up security for Brar

Retired Lieutenant General Kuldeep Singh Brar and his wife being escorted out of the Chhatrapati Shivaji International Airport in Mumbai on Wednesday. Photo: Vivek Bendre

In the wake of Sunday’s knife attack on Lt. General (retired) Kuldeep Singh Brar in London by suspected Khalistan operatives, the Maharashtra government has assured him that it will step up security for him here.

“While we have already provided him adequate security, we will provide an increase in his security cover in order to prevent recurrence of such an incident in Mumbai,” Home Minister R. R. Patil told journalists here.

‘Opportunistic silence’

Chandigarh Special Correspondent reports:

The Congress criticised the Bharatiya Janata Party’s “opportunistic silence” on the attack on Gen. Brar in London.

In a statement in Chandigarh, Punjab unit general secretary Arvind Khanna said it wasn’t for the first time the BJP preferred political opportunism to national interest. Earlier, it kept quiet when the Shiromani Gurdwara Parbandhak Committee started construction of a memorial for those killed in Operation Blue Star within the precincts of the Golden Temple.

Centre to relocate Brar

PTI reports:

As Lt. Gen. K. S. Brar returned to India on Wednesday, the Centre is looking to relocate him from Mumbai, besides enhancing his security to ‘Z-plus’ category.

Indian agencies were also verifying reports that the plot to attack him may have been hatched in Germany.

Officials in Delhi said the Centre would soon relocate Gen. Brar from Mumbai to an undisclosed location.