FBI sends an alert: Terror lurks at Indian airports

New Delhi: An alert has been sounded at airports across the country following threats of hijacking of United States-bound flights from India.

The alert, issued by the Bureau of Civil Aviation Security (BCAS) on Sunday to airports all over India, said the order would be effective for a week's period, according to official sources.

“The alert was sounded after the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) of the US informed the BCAS of an email warning of hijacking of US-bound flights from India,” official sources said.

Soon after the tipoff, the BCAS passed on the information to the security agencies involved in airport security and the Director of Airports along with the 'alert' orders.

"The email, sent by unknown entities and originating from an Indian 'address', was received by the FBI on Saturday at its US headquarters," official sources said.

While the 'target' was US-bound flights, the nature of threat mentioned in the e-mail was 'hijacking', the official added.

Just three days back, airports across the nation had been put on 'high security alert' following an anonymous warning that al-Qaeda was targeting airports in Tamil Nadu and Kerala.

The Ministry of Civil Aviation had sounded the alert after the Trichy Airport Director received a letter warning of possible al-Qaeda strikes.

The letter, which was in Tamil said, "al-Qaeda terrorists are going to bomb Chennai airport. It added that suicide squads have penetrated airports in Chennai, Trichy, Madurai, Coimbatore and airports in Kerala."

Soon after this, security was tightened at all the airports and measures such as secondary check before boarding, physical checking of hand baggage, increased perimeter guarding and surveillance were put in place.

Corroborating this, the Central Industrial Security Force (CISF), which provides security at airports, had also said the threat was specifically directed at seven airports – Trichy, Madurai, Chennai, Coimbatore (Tamil Nadu) and Thiruvananthapuram, Kochi and Kozhikode (Kerala).

However, as a precaution, vehicles of the airport staff and their baggage were also being checked and "spotters" – men trained to identify suspicious people – were posted at airports.