New Delhi:
First came the warning from the Home Ministry that terrorists may try to hijack an Air India plane. Hours later followed another alert.
That intelligence inputs suggest that the Lashkar-e-Taiba (LeT) has purchased para-gliders and its members are training for suicide attacks. Fifty para-gliders have reportedly been bought from Europe.
The Home Ministry has asked all security forces to carry out mock drills to deal with these.
In response to the alert against a possible hijacking by the LeT, security at all airports has been upgraded, says the Civil Aviation Ministry.
(Read: Air India planes put on high alert)When contacted, spokespersons of leading carriers like Air India and Jet Airways said they had already put in place all recommendations by the government. This includes placing sky marshals on certain routes and introduction of frisking at step-ladders as an additional precautionary measure.
"We have intelligence inputs that there could be a hijack attempt of Indian planes. So we have alerted the Ministry of Civil Aviation and Bureau of Civil Aviation Security (BCAS) and tightened security in all airports in the country," said UK Bansal, Special Secretary in the Ministry of Home Affairs.
Information shared with India, allegedly by Western agencies, suggest that terrorists affiliated with the Al-Qaida, Lashkar-e-Taiba and Jamat-ul-Dawa were planning to hijack an Air India plane operating in or from neighbouring countries of Nepal, Bangladesh, Sri Lanka, Bhutan, Maldives, Afghanistan and Pakistan.