India issues terrorism alert over hijack plot

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Source: ap

NEW DELHI – Indian airports were on high alert Friday after intelligence services received information that al-Qaida-linked militants were plotting to hijack a plane.

Such an attack would be the first major terrorist strike in India since 10 heavily armed militants rampaged through the commercial capital Mumbai for three days in November 2008, killing 166 people.

Airports were placed on alert Thursday after the government received warnings from intelligence agencies, aviation spokeswoman Moushumi Chakravarty said.

A report in The Indian Express newspaper, which Chakravarty confirmed, said intelligence officials had uncovered a plot by militants linked to al-Qaida and the Pakistan-based Lashkar-e-Taiba group to hijack an Air India or Indian Airlines flight destined for a neighboring South Asian country.

Read more: http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20100122/ap_on_re_as/as_india_terror_alert