Home

Back to Index

Hijack threat at Varanasi airport

        Varanasi (Uttar Pradesh): The District administration has tightened security at the airport here after intelligence agencies reported plans by the Pakistan-based Lashkar-e-Taiba (LeT) to hijack a Nepal-bound flight. "Keeping in mind past experiences and taking the present situation into consideration, we have beefed up security at the airport. Everything is on high alert. The security stations made on a temporary basis will be made permanent soon enough. We are sure that there is no breach anywhere," said Rajiv Agarwal, District Magistrate. The Central Industrial Security Force (CISF) manning the airport had been put on maximum alert and a quick reaction team has also been deployed. Similar security measures have been taken at the New Delhi and Kolkata airports. Passengers travelling by Indian and Cosmic Airways flights to Nepal and those returning by these carriers are being put through extensive checking. On March 7, two bomb blasts at the 'Sankat Mochan' Temple and at the Varanasi main Railway Station left 18 persons dead and several wounded. New Delhi has claimed the serial bombings of July 11 in Mumbai were masterminded by the LeT, and has called on Islamabad to rein in Pakistan-based Islamist militants. Pakistan President Pervez Musharraf has demanded evidence of the blasts being engineered from Pakistan. India and Pakistan have now agreed to set up a joint agency to tackle terrorism. This proposal was agreed to by Prime Minister Manmohan Singh and President Musharraf during a meeting held on the sidelines of the XIVth Non-Aligned Movement Summit in Havana, Cuba.
-Oct 3,  2006

List of Leading Indian News Papers