Three Indian airports on alert after Mumbai attacks
INDIA: Indian has declared a security alert at three major
airports, including Delhi and the IT hub Bangalore, and added extra
checks to vehicles and luggage after warnings from intelligence
agencies, officials said on Thursday.
Local television showed armed police guarding entrances to Delhi's
international airport. Police cordons had also been set up outside the
airport in the southern industrial city of Chennai.
The heightened security comes days after the militant attacks in
Mumbai that killed 171 people.
The anniversary of the 1992 demolition of a 16th century mosque by
Hindu groups in the northern town of Ayodhya is also marked on Dec. 6,
officials said, an event which sparked violence between Hindus and
Muslims.
Indian television said the alert was issued after an email from
Deccan Mujahideen, the same group that claimed responsibility for the
Mumbai attacks. Officials said they did not have information about this.
"More checking of passenger luggage of people coming to the airport,
more thorough checking of vehicles coming to the airport," Moushumi
Chakravarty, a spokesperson for the Ministry of Civil Aviation, said.
"There are more security measures to control the airspace also. There
are security personnel manning the perimeter of the airports."
New Delhi, Thursday, Reuters |