New Delhi, May 2: India is proposing to increase the number of security personnel in Afghanistan for Indians at project sites and is seeking a nod from Kabul.

“We are talking to them (the Karzai government) about it and are thinking of ways to beef up security for our citizens there,” defence minister Pranab Mukherjee said here today on the sidelines of a navy commanders’ conference.

Indian consulates in Jalalabad, Kandahar and Herat are guarded by the Indo-Tibetan Border Police (ITBP), as is the site of the Border Roads Organisation (BRO) project to link Zaranj and Delaram in south Afghanistan.

Since BRO worker Maniappan Raman Kutty was abducted and killed by the Taliban in November, India has increased its complement of ITBP personnel to 300. It is now seeking to send more.

A team of the foreign ministry that is in Kabul to review security measures following the killing of telecom engineer K. Suryanarayana is expected to report shortly. Suryanarayana was not working for an Indian government project.

Mukherjee, who addressed senior officers at a navy commanders’ conference, also asked them to be more guarded and sensitise subordinates to the dangers posed by leak of information.

His comments come against the backdrop of the alleged leak from the navy war room for which three officers were dismissed from service earlier this year. The defence minister asked for suggestions on a “zero-defect system to ensure secrecy”.

Yesterday, the Centre had revoked the passport of R. Shankaran, a suspect in the war room leak case, to facilitate his deportation. He is in London and is wanted by the CBI. Shankaran is the nephew of navy chief Admiral Arun Prakash’s wife.

Earlier this month, the defence minister had advised senior army officers against meeting with retired colleagues socially if they were working for arms companies.

He also urged naval headquarters to take steps against personnel who had caused harm to the navy. The remark comes after the navy last month lost a missile boat, INS Prahar, off the Goa coast.