Indian airports on high alert over possible hijack threat

(AFP)

Indian airports have been put on high alert following intelligence reports that Islamic terrorists could hijack a plane to seek the release of a man sentenced to death over a deadly 2001 attack on India's parliament, the Press Trust of India reported Saturday.

The airports were put on alert late Friday by the Bureau of Civil Aviation Security after intelligence agencies reported the threat, the news agency said.

The intelligence agencies said Pakistan-based terrorists could hijack and fly a plane to Bangladesh to avoid putting the international spotlight on Pakistan, the report added.

The Central Industrial Security Force, which is in charge of guarding 54 of the nation's 68 airports, confirmed that airports were on high alert but declined to comment on the nature of the threat. "We have received such an alert," a security force official said, asking not to be named. However, he added: "These are very routine alerts which we frequently get. There shouldn't be any kind of paranoia."

Mohammed Afzal, an Indian Kashmiri, was sentenced to death in September for conspiracy in the 2001 attack on India's parliament that claimed 15 lives, including those of the attackers, and brought nuclear rivals India and Pakistan to the brink of war.

India blamed the attack on Pakistan-backed militants opposed to New Delhi's rule in Indian Kashmir. But Islamabad denied any involvement.

Kashmiri leaders have warned that the execution of Afzal would inflame a 17-year-old Islamic separatist insurgency against Indian rule in Kashmir that has claimed at least 44,500 lives by official count. Separatists say the death toll is at least double that figure.