Centre warns of attacks

India sounded a nation-wide terror alert on Wednesday after intelligence agencies gave inputs that groups opposed to Indo-Pak talks were planning to carry out an attack to disrupt the dialogue process.

India sounded a nation-wide terror alert on Wednesday after intelligence agencies gave inputs that groups opposed to Indo-Pak talks were planning to carry out an attack to disrupt the dialogue process.

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The alert comes ahead of the crucial three-day visit by Home Minister P. Chidambaram to Islamabad for the SAARC Home Ministers conference. This is the first time that home ministers of the two countries would come face to face after 26/11 Mumbai attack.

"We have issued a general advisory to most states today asking security agencies to step up vigil in context of the talks," a senior government official said on Wednesday.

Intelligence officials are still analysing and putting together the inputs so that they are able to put out a list of potential targets that the security agencies need to focus on.

“The inputs indicate there is some movement… some attempts being made but they need to be analysed further,” an intelligence official said.

The blast in Pune’s German Bakery this February that killed 17 people and injured over three dozen happened just 10 days before the resumption of the foreign-secretary-level talks in Delhi.

Both sides went ahead with the talks to ensure that the relations between the two countries were not held hostage by terrorist activities.

The explosion did, however, widen the “trust deficit” that the prime ministers of the two countries who met on the sidelines of the SAARC Summit in Thimphu in April, identified as the primary stumbling block.