New Delhi: Stressing that India proposes to have "Potent Minimum Nuclear Deterrence to back its conventional deterrence", Defence Minister Pranab Mukherjee today (Nov 29, 2004) said that the Special Forces would be reoriented and given the task of dealing with Counter-Proliferation Threats.

The "go ahead" has been given to increase the number of the Special Forces and plans entail totally reorganising them for mandate vis-a-vis unconventional warfare, counter-proliferation, special reconnaissance, psychological operations and other specialised tasks, he said.

Lauding the Special Forces for an impressive record in the counter-insurgency operations, Mukherjee said that the reorientation had to be undertaken as emerging international threats pointed towards possibilities of nuclear and biological weapons falling into terrorist hands.

Inaugurating a two-day seminar on 'Special Forces', organised by Centre for Land and Warfare Studies (CLAWS) in New Delhi, the Minister said that though India is committed to a "no first use" of nuclear weapons, "we are also clear that conventional deterrence must continue to be backed by a Potent Minimum Nuclear Deterrence Capability".

Though Mukherjee did not indicate the exact number to which the Special Forces would be increased, Senior Army Officers said that as per the plans the strength might be increased to 10-15 battalions in phases while re-equipping them with more firepower and other state-of-art weapons and gadgets.