Union Home Minister Rajnath Singh on Tuesday reviewed the overall security environment in the country and its neighbourhood with the Intelligence and security top brass including the NSA, Foreign Secretary and Army Chief. Defence Minister Manohar Parrikar also attended the inter-ministerial meeting that took stock of the prevailing security situation in the country ahead of US President Barack Obama's visit to India to attend the Republic Day parade as chief guest.

“We discussed the country's security situation”, Army Chief Dalbir Singh Suhag told reporters without elaborating. NSA Ajit Doval, Foreign Secretary Sujatha Singh and the chiefs of intelligence agencies attended the meeting.

Official sources said the meeting reviewed the situation in India's neighbourhood, the recent violence in Assam perpetrated by NDFB and the blast outside a restaurant in Bangalore on Sunday. India has already approached Bhutan and Myanmar to flush out Indian insurgent groups taking shelter in their territories.

The meeting stressed the need for bringing peace in the Northeast where killing of more than 70 Adivasis by Bodo rebel group NDFB(S) too had exposed the fragile peace in the region. The Army has already deployed 66 Army columns (70 personnel in each column) in Assam for counter insurgency operations.

The sources said the Home Minister asked the Army Chief to ensure that peace returns to the violence-hit areas and there is no flare up. Singh told Suhag that Army presence should be increased in Assam, Arunachal Pradesh and Meghalaya, where NDFB militants are active.

Steps being taken for security during the Republic Day are also believed to have been discussed threadbare, sources said. Activities of Pakistan-based militant groups and their attempts to carry out terror attacks in hinterland were also discussed in the nearly two-hour long meeting.

The Home Minister asked intelligence chiefs to ensure that there should not be any gap in intelligence gathering mechanism and all inputs must be analysed carefully and shared with all concerned agencies with utmost seriousness.

Security establishments are concerned over the activities of five SIMI cadres, who escaped from a jail in Madhya Pradesh's Khandwa and were suspected to be involved in the Bengaluru blasts.