M A I N   N E W S

Qaida, Lashkar plot joint strike during World Cup
MHA sounds alert Navy, Coast Guard step up vigilance Security beefed up at match venues, west coast cities 
Ajay Banerjee
Tribune News Service

New Delhi, March 9
A country having “good” intelligence gathering assets in Afghanistan and Pakistan has warned India of an impending joint terror strike being planned by the Al-Qaida and its ally in spreading terror, the Lashkar-e-Toiba.

The Union Ministry of Home Affairs has asked all states to be on alert. With intelligence inputs hinting at a sea-borne attack, the Navy and the Coast Guard have been asked to maintain a tight vigil, sources said. The risk has been identified to all venues of the ongoing cricket World Cup, cities on the west coast and off-shore assets like petroleum and gas extraction rigs, shore-based oil refineries and major ports. There’s also a possibility of terrorists blowing up an oil tanker or an LPG carrying ship close to ports.

Critically, the information is general in nature and not specific (it does not pin-point possible targets). Sources said it would be a tough task to maintain a round-the-clock vigil of the country’s lengthy coastline despite the Navy and the Coast Guard pressing in all its possible assets.

The recent inputs received from the Central security agencies, which are coordinating with the foreign agency, indicate that Pakistan-based LeT operative Zabiuddin Ansari and his extremist associates had in October 2010 gathered information pertaining to explosive chemicals and processes used in the manufacture of detonators and explosives. “Ansari and his associates had also surveyed all cricket World Cup venues in India,” sources added.

Indications are that part of the information has been gleaned from a nabbed terrorist of either of the two outfits and has been corroborated through electronic surveillance.

According to an input, some members of a possible operational-cell could already be in the country and others may arrive soon. A collateral input reveals that Al-Qaida operatives involved in the attacks could travel to India via boat like the Mumbai attackers did in November 2008.

“These operatives could be well-acquainted with maritime travel to reach their targets in quick time, and could be Urdu-speakers from the Punjab province of Pakistan”, warns the Home Ministry in its advisories to states. A separate advisory was today dispatched by the MHA, which had on March 7, too, issued a warning. Thousands of fishermen, who are out at sea, along the coast from Gujarat to Kerala have been asked to watch out for ‘new faces’ in their respective areas. An additional layer of security has been introduced at cricket World Cup venues.

Notably, it is after years that the name of the Al-Qaida - headed by fugitive Osama bin Laden - has cropped up in Indian intelligence inputs. The Al-Qaida, which has ties with a number of terrorist groups who have earlier conduct attacks in India, has publicly stated its support for terror strikes on India.