However, the aim of the deployment would indeed be to monitor the LoC, Times of India said. As far as the Pakistani side of the LoC is concerned, the U.S. is reported to be considering air-borne monitors tasked explicitly with observing cross-border movement.

The U.S. proposal to India comes in the wake of Vajpayee’s rejection of “international monitors” for the LoC and Pakistan reacting coolly to the Indian proposal for joint Indo-Pak patrolling.

The Times of India report added that officials in Washington and Delhi have concluded that “it is only the war on Al-Qaeda that can provide a politically safe rationale for the Vajpayee government to allow American troops in, given India’s traditional aversion to outside mediation in Kashmir.”

The Indian government has already started preparing the ground for such deployment. Unsubstantiated claims are made that Al-Qaeda is active in the Valley of Kashmir and that so-called "Arab-looking terrorists" are being shot dead by the security forces in Jammu and Kashmir.

So far, all the so-called "terrorist" activity within India has been attributed to the Pakistani military intelligence, ISI. From now on, any such activities, whether real or fabricated, shall be blamed on Al-Qaeda.

Times of India said that in the near future, India could very well declare that "Al-Qaeda and all the other bad guys are operating here and we invite the U.S. to help us deal with them". A number of Indian officials have already started speaking of the possibility of last month's Jammu massacre and some other recent incidents in Jammu and Kashmir as being the handiwork of Al-Qaeda.

Rumsfeld has offered Washington's help in establishing a system of "sensory devices" to monitor incursions by militants into Kashmir. But it is not clear what the nature of such devices is. No details were given of whether the sensors would be air-borne or placed at strategic positions along the LoC.

In its Wednesday editorial, the Times of India warned about the consequences of the American involvement in India. "The Americans will say, as will the Indians, that this is only to ensure the subcontinent doesn’t turn into a nuclear hellhole. And yet, there are enough signals that the U.S. is slowly, but surely, enlarging its role," the paper said.

For many years the U.S. has wanted to have a foothold in Kashmir, which is very strategically placed, to monitor a vast area extending from Iran and Afghanistan, to Russia and China, to the whole Subcontinent.

The central government issued Tuesday, June 11, a "red alert" that "jehadis", including Al-Qaeda and Taliban, are planning terrorist strikes on banking institutions in India. This has led India's central bank, the Reserve Bank of India, banks and financial institutions (FIs) to beef up security in Mumbai, India's financial capital.

The Reserve Bank of India reviewed the security situation in banks and FIs after a "secret message" was sent by the central bank's banking division to Indian Banks' Association, RBI and market regulator SEBI.

Banking industry sources said there were reports that terrorist strikes were being planned against banks and FIs in Mumbai in the next eight to ten days.

The review meeting was held after the Center issued instructions asking banks and FIs to step up security besides making it foolproof, especially around head offices. Several banks and FIs in Mumbai have already started frisking visitors and tightening security cordon. Some banks have even employed stengun-wielding private security round the clock.

In Washington, Deputy Secretary of State Richard Armitage said Wednesday the U.S. would be happy to consider sharing of intelligence from aerial monitoring of cross-border infiltration along the LoC dividing India and Pakistan if the two countries agreed.