India alerted to al-Qaida hijacking plot
Source: Agencies |
January 23, 2010, Saturday
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Airline passengers across India went through extra security screenings yesterday and sky marshals were placed on flights as the government put its airports on high alert amid reports that al-Qaida-linked militants planned to hijack a plane.
A hijacking, especially one launched by Pakistan-based militants, would send tensions soaring between the two nuclear-armed rivals and be a huge distraction for United States efforts to crush the Taliban and al-Qaida along the Afghanistan-Pakistan border.
On a visit to India this week, US Defense Secretary Robert Gates warned that a syndicate of terror groups was hoping to foment a new war between India and Pakistan.
India has largely been free of terror attacks since 10 heavily armed militants affiliated with a Pakistan-based militant group rampaged through the commercial capital Mumbai for three days in November 2008, killing 166 people.
India issued a terror alert at all its airports on Thursday after the government received warnings about a possible attack, aviation spokeswoman Moushumi Chakravarty said.
A report in The Indian Express newspaper, which Chakravarty confirmed, said intelligence officials had uncovered a plot by militants linked to al-Qaida and the Pakistan-based Lashkar-e-Taiba group to hijack an Air India or Indian Airlines flight destined for an unspecified South Asian country.
Indian media said the hijack threat was uncovered during the interrogation of Amjad Khwaja, a militant leader belonging to Harkat-ul-Jihad-al-Islami, an extremist group involved in numerous terrorist attacks in India.
Khwaja was arrested in the southern Indian city of Chennai last week and was being questioned by Indian police.
Harakat-ul-Jihad-al-Islami is said to be based in Pakistan and to have similar motivation and goals as both al-Qaida and Lashkar, but it is unclear whether they have direct links.
A hijacking, especially one launched by Pakistan-based militants, would send tensions soaring between the two nuclear-armed rivals and be a huge distraction for United States efforts to crush the Taliban and al-Qaida along the Afghanistan-Pakistan border.
On a visit to India this week, US Defense Secretary Robert Gates warned that a syndicate of terror groups was hoping to foment a new war between India and Pakistan.
India has largely been free of terror attacks since 10 heavily armed militants affiliated with a Pakistan-based militant group rampaged through the commercial capital Mumbai for three days in November 2008, killing 166 people.
India issued a terror alert at all its airports on Thursday after the government received warnings about a possible attack, aviation spokeswoman Moushumi Chakravarty said.
A report in The Indian Express newspaper, which Chakravarty confirmed, said intelligence officials had uncovered a plot by militants linked to al-Qaida and the Pakistan-based Lashkar-e-Taiba group to hijack an Air India or Indian Airlines flight destined for an unspecified South Asian country.
Indian media said the hijack threat was uncovered during the interrogation of Amjad Khwaja, a militant leader belonging to Harkat-ul-Jihad-al-Islami, an extremist group involved in numerous terrorist attacks in India.
Khwaja was arrested in the southern Indian city of Chennai last week and was being questioned by Indian police.
Harakat-ul-Jihad-al-Islami is said to be based in Pakistan and to have similar motivation and goals as both al-Qaida and Lashkar, but it is unclear whether they have direct links.
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