The Indian government has accused Lashkar-e-Taiba (LeT), a Pakistan-based terrorist group, of sending the 10 gunmen who launched attacks across Mumbai, killing more than 170 people. But Pakistan denies the allegation that the attacks were plotted and launched from its soil.br /br /Indian military officials said that stationing three MiG 29s at the Hindon air base outside the capital after 12 years after the planes were removed would cut down its air force’s response time in an emergency situation by at least 10 minutes. Without the deployment, jets would need to be scrambled from bases at Ambala and Bareilly.br /br /“We have deployed our MiG 29 fighter aircraft on a temporary basis for the air defence of the capital from any rogue terrorist aircraft,” said a senior officer, declining to be named.br /The warplanes would supplement conventional ground-based air defences including surface-to-air missiles and anti-aircraft guns.br /br /Officials said the Hindon air base had been reactivated for fighter aircraft operations. It was closed in 1996 after an unusually high number of accidents caused by birds that hover over a nearby abattoir.br /br /India’s military, meanwhile, maintains a state of high alert following the Mumbai strikes.br /While the foreign minister Pranab Mukherjeetold parliament recently that war “is not the solution”, defence officials in New Delhi concede that war or precision strikes against Islamist militant camps in Pakistan could not be “entirely discounted”.

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