LTTE threat to Kerala airports

Security strengthened:

Security has been strengthened at all three international airports in Kerala following an alert received from Mumbai about an LTTE threat to the key installations, India media reported yesterday.

The Air India security office in Thiruvanathapuram received the alert message from its Mumbai office, they said.

There were also intelligence reports that the LTTE may attack any of the South Indian airports in the coming days. Kerala has three airports Thiruvananthapuram, Nedumbassery (Kochi) and Karippur (Kozhikode). There are regular flights from Sri Lanka to Kochi and Thiruvanathapuram.

The Central Industrial Security Force (CISF), in charge of airport security, has stepped up vigil at the airports. A special meeting was conducted by the CISF Commandant Rajiv Panth to evaluate the security measures.

Thiruvananthapuram International Airport was thoroughly searched by the bomb squad and dog squad of the police. The Quick Reaction Team of the CISF also joined search operations, said a news report from the city. Similar search operations were conducted in other Kerala airports too.

There has been an active operation of the LTTE in the state and of late there were reports that the LTTE is having a “loose arrangement” with certain fringe Maoist groups and some Islamist organizations in the state., reported rediff.com.

A top-ranking intelligence official said some former Naxalite leaders in the state are in touch with the terror elements in Sri Lanka, it added.

In another development, on Friday the Tamil Nadu Coast Guard and Police launched a search operation for a boat from Sri Lanka, suspected to belong to the banned LTTE, off the coast of Tamil Nadu near Cuddalore.

Superintendent of Police Pradeep Kumar along with his team of officers, Q Branch Police and SB-CID scanned the Pichavaram Mangrove Forest using boats but of no avail. The Coast Guard also conducted an aerial recce along the coast looking for the boat

Meanwhile, Indian President Pratibha Devisingh Patil addressing a passing out parade at the Officers Training Academy (OTA), Chennai yesterday suggested modern warfare must necessarily incorporate measures to counter threats posed by terrorism and eradicate the menace.