Air India Gulf flights receive hijack threat

Security has been stepped up after reports that terrorists might try to hijack an Indian plane flying to Gulf.

Security aboard Air-India flights has been stepped up after intelligence reports suggested terrorists might try to hijack an Indian plane flying to or from the Gulf, an airline spokesman said on Wednesday.

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The state-run carrier was taking all anti-hijacking measures, spokesman Jitender Bhargava said. He declined to give details about who is suspected of planning such an attack.

"The alert was sounded a week ago and it continues," he said. The Indian Express newspaper said the warning was issued by India's Bureau of Civil Aviation Security, based on a tip from defence intelligence units, and that it applied specifically to a flight to or from Dubai in the United Arab Emirates. Air-India and Indian Airlines, which is also stepping up security, operate 150 flights a week to various Gulf destinations, including the Emirates, Bahrain and Qatar.

The newspaper said additional security staff had been hired by both airlines to guard their aircraft at Dubai airport. Islamic militants had hijacked an Indian Airlines jetliner from Kathmandu, Nepal, in December 1999. The hijackers flew the plane to Kandahar in then Taliban-ruled Afghanistan, and the aircraft and its passengers were released only after the Indian government freed three Islamic militants held in Indian jails.

Indian airports, which have flights landing from Persian Gulf states, have also been placed on high alert, the newspaper said. These include Bombay, New Delhi, Hyderabad, Cochin and Kozhikode.