Terror alert for flights to West

India’s security agencies have warned that terrorists are planning to attack flights going to western countries from the country’s airports.

India’s security agencies have warned that terrorists are planning to attack flights going to western countries from the country’s airports.

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After receiving this input from intelligence agencies, the Bureau of Civil Aviation Security (BCAS) has issued a nationwide alert and directed heads of civil aviation security in different parts of the country to mount security preparedness at all the airports.

Besides asking airline operators to be vigilant, the agencies involved in airport security have been directed to carry out “100 per cent search of passengers and manual checking of carry-on baggage”.

The security agencies have also been asked to carry out "secondary security checks at the ladder point of aircraft in respect of all flights from India to western countries,” the alert said.

A BCAS official said the government had taken the latest input seriously as the terrorists had been planning for a long time to break into India’s aviation security in the run up to 2010 Commonwealth Games.

Some of the airports are already on the radar of the terrorists as their objective is to tarnish the country’s image before the Commonwealth Games, he added.

In January last, the government had put all Air India planes operating in the country’s neighbourhood on high alert after the intelligence agencies warned that the Lashar-e-Tayyeba and other terror groups were planning to hijack a plane.

In view of continuing threat to the civil aviation security, the Union home ministry had conducted a series a review meetings and issued directives to be more vigilant to prevent any terrorist attack.