Security: Amid Pak tensions, India revamps NSAB with ex-RAW chief as its head
Virendra Pandit
New Delhi: A week after Pakistan-based Islamist terrorists killed at least 26 Hindu tourists at Pahalgam in Jammu and Kashmir, and war cries escalated in both the countries, India on Wednesday revamped the crucial National Security Advisory Board (NSAB), for the first time after 2018, the media reported.
Alok Joshi, the former chief of the Research And Analysis (RAW), the external spy agency, will head the NSAB.
The last NSAB was constituted in 2018 with former Indian Ambassador to Russia P S Raghavan as its head.
The revamped NSAB will now have six members, including three from a military background, two IPS officers and one from the Indian Foreign Service (IFS).
From the military, former Southern Army Commander Lieutenant-General AK Singh, retired Western Air Commander Air Marshal PM Sinha, and ex-Rear Admiral Monty Khanna have been appointed.
Retired IPS officers Rajiv Ranjan Verma and Manmohan Singh, and former IFS officer B Venkatesh Varma will also be on the six-member board.
The NSAB was first constituted in 1998 to undertake long-term analysis to provide perspectives on the national security issues to the National Security Council (NSC) and to recommend measures or solutions and policy options on the issues referred to it by the NSC.
