Centre sounds alert, security tightened
Taliban-trained suicide bombers enter India, says report
The Centre on Monday sounded terror alert in Mumbai, Kolkata, Delhi and Gujarat, after intelligence inputs suggested that Taliban-trained suicide attackers have entered the country to target vital installations.
The three metropolises have been put on high alert, with security tightened especially in airports and other vital installations, including the Bombay Stock Exchange, Bhabha Atomic Research Centre (BARC), Shiv Sena headquarters (all in Mumbai) and the US Consulate in Kolkata, sources in the Union Home Ministry said.
Police in all the three cities are looking for pashtoons and Afghans, understood to be members of the Lashkar-e-Toiba (LeT), who are set out for their projected targets in the country, the sources added.
The information was shared by the FBI team that visited New Delhi last week. The Centre has forwarded it to various states for reviewing security arrangements and alerting intelligence “at all levels.”
Sources said the FBI is in touch with the Pakistan authorities to get additional information on the “non-state-actors” active on the Indian front.
Terror suspect and Pakistan-born-American, David Coleman Headley, who was arrested by the FBI has told the agency about the specific targets of the LeT in India. Headley had visited a number of Indian cities during his reconnaissance mission to scout for key targets before he was arrested at the Chicago airport. It has been disclosed to the FBI that many of the Pakistani army officers are also working on the terror designs of the LeT.
Headley is believed to have videographed the premises of the National Defence College and the residential quarters at Raksha Bhawan during his visit to Delhi earlier this year. He is also said to have surveyed the BARC facility in Mumbai. This apart, a number of saffron leaders, including Gujarat Chief Minister Narendra Modi and Shiv Sena leader Bal Thackeray, are also said to be on his hit list.
Headley alias Dawood Gilani seems to be related to the brother of Danyal Gilani, a public relation officer in the office of Pakistan Prime Minister Yousuf Raza Gilani. Reports even described Headley as an FBI agent “who turned a rogue” and joined hands with the LeT. It was also said that the FBI had again “struck a deal with him.”
The terror alert comes weeks after India marked the first anniversary of the Mumbai terror attacks.
