The Indian interior ministry issued a security alert for Mumbai, Kolkata and Bangalore on Monday, warning that the three major cities could be targeted by terrorists, according to an Urdu-language daily.
Based on information obtained during the interrogation of suspected Indian Mujahideen terrorist Salman Ahmed, the ministry has asked the governments of Maharashtra, West Bengal and Karnataka to take all possible steps to foil any bid by terrorists to strike the cities.
According to a report in the newspaper Roznama Siasat, an unidentified interior ministry official said: “We have some information and we don’t want to take any chances. So, we have alerted the concerned state governments to take all necessary security measures immediately.”
During his interrogation, Salman, who a suspect in the serial blasts that occurred in the towns of Ahmedabad, Varanasi and Gorakhpur in recent years, confessed that Indian Mujahideen set up bases in Karachi, Kathmandu, Dubai and a few other places in Middle East under its so-called ‘‘Karachi Project.’’
The Karachi Project aims to recruit disaffected Indian Muslim youth to launch attacks in India.
The report added that Salman has also admitted that the recruits of Indian Mujahideen go to Pakistan for militant training either through Nepal or Bangladesh and then they are sent back to India for carrying out terrorist activities.
Source: Roznama Siasat, India, March 09, 2010
