The Cabinet Committee on Security (CCS) on Sunday placed the Coast Guard under the supervision on the Navy and paramilitary forces protecting the border under the command of the Army.
The CCS also decided that any attack by Pakistan, like the rocket attack on Chasana killing three Indian Jawans, ‘‘will be immediately retaliated to by our armed forces.’’
Announcing this after a two-hour meeting chaired by Prime Minister Atal Bihari Vajpayee, external affairs minister Jaswant Singh said the rationale behind placing the Coast Guard and under the Navy and paramilitary forces under the Army was to ‘‘create a unified command of a standard operating form.’’ He clarified that only paramilitary forces on border duty will come under the Army command.
Singh indicated that ‘‘further diplomatic measures’’ are in the offing. The external affairs ministry would announce these decisions as and when they are made.
The CCS also discussed the question of withdrawing the most favoured nation treatment to Pakistan.

Evading a direct reply to a question about whether the decision on paramiltary forces and the Coast Guard should be read as preparations for war, Singh said, ‘‘You read what you will and I will do what I will.’’

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On Sunday, in the second strike in five days, three Army Jawans and a CRPF constable were killed and seven injured when militants attacked an Army camp in Chasana (Udhampur). The strike was described by Singh as a rocket attack by Pakistan.

Migration in the border areas, meanwhile, continued, as the shelling and firing carried on till late on Sunday and killed one and injured seven persons. Villages like Hatland, Kamakote, Mohura and Nabla in Uri are almost deserted. More than 20,000 people have already migrated from Jammu. Bureau Report