“While left-wing extremism may be restricted in its scope to some regions, the larger problem of terrorism affects all states equally. Terror attacks may have happened so far only in some locations. But the reach of terrorists is such that no one can say they are fully immune to such attacks,” Singh said at a chief ministers’ conference on internal security in New Delhi.

Organised by the Home ministry, the conference was attended by chief secretaries, directors general of police, chiefs of para-military forces and intelligence agencies. Singh’s warning came on a day when an e-mail, purportedly scripted by al-Qaeda and received by the Registrar of the High Court, threatened attacks on high court judges, Parliament and the Taj Mahal.

A day earlier, another e-mail had threatened to blow up the Delhi airport.

Singh said intelligence agencies had warned of intensified terrorist violence with increased focus on soft targets.Pointing to high-profile terror attacks this year in Hyderabad, Rajasthan, Punjab and Uttar Pradesh, he told the Central intelligence and state agencies to have a better coordination to pre-empt and reduce possibilities of terror strikes in the country.

Singh hinted at home-grown terror cells and asked the participants to remain guard against attempts by terrorist groups to recruit locals for their activities.

Local sympathy

“While the actual perpetrators of terrorist violence may belong to a few known organisations, we need to guard against their attempts to recruit local sympathy and support,” he said. He also urged the states to establish specialised and dedicated forces to “cripple” left-wing extremism, which continued to be the “single biggest security challenge” confronting the country. Singh, who held a breakfast meeting with chief ministers of seven Naxal-affected states, said: “Not a day passes without an incident of the left-wing extremism taking place somewhere or the other.”

“We need to cripple Naxalite forces with all the means at our command... And we cannot rest in peace till we have eliminated this virus,” he said, while making a mention of the sensational Dantewada jailbreak in which 300 inmates, including over 100 Naxals, escaped.

He said the Naxal groups had succeeded in broadening their base in the country. “Although the notions of a red corridor from Nepal to Andhra Pradesh are exaggerated, we have to admit that they have achieved some success,” he said.