Indian Airports on High Alert after Al-Qaeda threat

Airports across India were put on high security alert Wednesday following an anonymous warning that Al Qaeda was targeting southern airports in Tamil Nadu and Kerala states, the government announced Thursday. The civil aviation ministry sounded the countrywide alert after the Trichy airport staff found Wednesday an anonymous letter in Tamil warning of possible Al Qaeda strikes, Ajay Prasad, secretary in the ministry, said Thursday.

"The letter said that Al Qaeda would be targeting airports in Tamil Nadu and Kerala. We have strengthened the security measures and are not taking any chances," Prasad said. The Central Industrial Security Force (CISF), which provides security to all civilian airports, had earlier said the specific threat was directed at six of the airports in the country's south: Trichy, Madurai, Chennai, Coimbatore (all Tamil Nadu) and Thiruvananthapuram, Kochi and Kozhikode (all Kerala). Prasad said the handwritten letter was found in an envelope in a room under construction at Trichy airport. "An airport employee found it and handed it over to the airport director," he said. "Right now we cannot say categorically that it is a hoax. The intelligence agencies are looking into it," he added. "Security was beefed up immediately." He said the ministry was in close touch with intelligence agencies and other law enforcing agencies.

In Chennai, the purported threat prompted Chief Minister M. Karunanidhi to review security across the state. Police sources said the threat might be linked to the death sentence passed against deposed Iraqi leader Saddam Hussein. Several cities in Tamil Nadu have seen large protests against the verdict. Authorities in Tamil Nadu put in place stringent security procedures. Visitors were not allowed into the waiting area. Police dogs were deployed in the airports. "For the present law and order situation is satisfactory. But since I think it can be maintained in a much more better manner, I have been frequently meeting senior officers," the chief minister told the media in Chennai. In Thiruvananthapuram, Arun Kumar Sinha, the inspector general of police, said airport authorities in Kerala too were on high alert.

"Every passenger arriving or departing from the airports (Thiruvananthapuram, Kochi and Kozhikode) is being frisked," he said. "We are leaving nothing to chance. We are also checking vehicles that come and leave the three airports." Earlier in New Delhi, a CISF official said "As a precaution, vehicles of the airport staff and their baggage are also being checked by security personnel in letter and spirit." "Specific instructions have been issued to officials posted at different airports to ensure the passengers are not harassed and there should not be any panic." The CISF has also posted "spotters" - men trained to identify suspicious people - at the airports.

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