India on Friday tightened security measures at airports and on board all flights amidst intelligence reports that Islamic militants were plotting to hijack an Indian flight ahead of the country's annual Republic Day celebrations on January 26.
A spokesman for the civil aviation ministry said the Bureau of Civil Aviation Security has issued a high-alert advisory to all carriers and airports across the country, indicating flights of national carrier Air India as possible target of militants.
He said security agencies, airlines and airport authorities have been ordered to adopt the entire procedures specified for hijack alerts, including the deployment of sky marshals on all planes and multi-point checks at the airports.
Meanwhile, U.K. Bansal, senior home ministry official in charge of internal security, said Friday that intelligence reports have indicated that there could be an attempt to hijack an Air India or Indian Airlines flight from or to a South Asian country.
He said the intelligence reports suggested that the biggest threats are to flights that originate either in India or in neighboring South Asian countries, including Bangladesh, Bhutan, Myanmar, Nepal, Maldives, Sri Lanka, and Afghanistan. These countries have also been advised to step up security at their airports.
India has been the target of several deadly Islamic militant attacks in the past, including the November 2008 Mumbai terror attacks that left over 170 people dead. Following the Mumbai attacks, India has launched a major operation to overhaul its security and intelligence-gathering apparatus in an effort to preempt such attacks in the future.
The Indian government blames the Pakistan-based militant group, Lashkar-e-Taiba, for the Mumbai attacks, and has said it would resume composite dialogue with Pakistan only after Islamabad brings the "perpetrators of Mumbai attacks to justice." The Lashkar-e-Taiba, however, has denied any involvement in the attack.
Soon after the Mumbai terror attacks in November, the Indian government had asked Pakistan to hand over some 20 suspects wanted in connection with the Mumbai attacks and various other pending criminal cases. Though Pakistan has admitted that a part of the Mumbai terror attacks was planned on its soil, Islamabad rejected the Indian demand for extradition of the Pakistani suspects immediately, stating that it will try the suspects in its own courts.
India accuses Pakistan of supporting and sheltering Kashmiri separatists, but Pakistan denies the allegation. The two nuclear-armed nations have already fought three wars since 1947, of which two were over the disputed region of Kashmir. Official figures indicate that the 18-year old insurgency against Indian rule in Kashmir has left more than 43,000 people dead.
In the past, Islamic militants had hijacked an Air India flight from Nepal's capital city of Kathmandu to Kandahar in southern Afghanistan in December 1999. The hijacked plane was finally released after the Indian government released four Islamic militants in exchange for the 167 passengers and crew.
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