US warns of I-Day attacks in Delhi, Mumbai

The US on Friday warned that Al Qaeda and some other foreign terrorists may carry out attacks in New Delhi and Mumbai around Independence Day.

The US Embassy in Delhi said the serial bombing attacks could possibly take place from Friday till August 16 and the likely targets are major airports, vital government installations and crowded places. The warning came a day after a major terror plot was foiled in Britain.

"The embassy has learnt that foreign terrorists, possibly including Al Qaeda, allegedly intend to carry out a series of bombing attacks in and around New Delhi and Mumbai in the days leading to the Independence Day," it said in an advisory.

"The likely targets are major airports, key central Indian government offices and major gathering places such as hotels and markets," the advisory said.

The American administration has issued an advisory to tourists from the United States that they should be careful during the next few days in view of the terrorists threat to the cities of Delhi and Mumbai in the days around Indian Independence Day.

The warning came hours after the Delhi police arrested two terrorists of Lashkar-e-Tayiba on Thursday night and seized RDX and other deadly explosives from them in large quantities.

The special cell of the Delhi police, which is interrogating the two terrorists had stepped up the vigil in Delhi following a tip off from the Intelligence Bureau about the possibility of an imminent strike by Pakistani-trained terror groups in Delhi and Jammu and Kashmir in particular. One of the arrested persons is a Pakistani national.

In view of the aborted UK terror plot, Delhi police has stepped up security at Indira Gandhi international airport as well as the buildings housing the American offices in the capital.

The special cell is checking all hotels and guest houses to make sure that no terrorist has taken shelter in them or is using them as hiding places and staying under assumed names.

The American embassy in Chanakyapuri is being converted into a fortress and vehicles would not be allowed anywhere near the building unless the credentials of the occupants were verified and anti-sabotage checks were carried out on the vehicles.

With Onkar Singh's Inputs