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Police and security agencies in Delhi have been alerted to the possibility of strikes by international terrorist groups, including Al Qaeda, in the capital by using India-based terrorist groups.
"There is information coming into the country that suggests the likelihood of attacks by terrorists such as hijacking, target some VIPs or attack some important installations," Delhi Police Commissioner Ajay Raj Sharma said.
Stating that the Al Qaeda presence has not been found in Delhi so far, he did not rule out the probability of the outfit using terrorist groups present on religious lines to carry out the major attacks.
Delhi Police personnel have been alerted to the threat, according to Sharma, who is likely to become Director General of Border Security Force soon at the end of his three-year tenure as the capital's police commissioner.
He said the security at the embassies here have been 'reviewed' and 'tightened' after the recent car bomb blast at the US consulate in Karachi 'as we thought such an attack could take place here also'.
He said a two-pronged strategy had been evolved to prevent any terrorist group to succeed in their nefarious designs.
"The focus is on preventing entry of such unwanted persons into Delhi. If they succeed (in entering Delhi), detect them at the earliest at the rented houses or other places of stay such as guesthouses and hotels," he said.
Sharma said the Delhi Police had already succeeded in scuttling many major strikes planned by the terrorists, including the one at the US embassy.
He said that a foreigner, staying as a student in Udaipur in Rajasthan, had in association with a fundamentalist from Bihar planned to ram an explosive-laden car into the US embassy, but was arrested before it could be translated into action.
The foreigner, suspected to be working for Al Qaeda, was also on the lookout for a scientist from India to work for the outfit, he said.
A module of Lashker-e-Tayiba terrorist outfit, which was planning to target oil installations, was also 'neutralised recently' with the killing of its two members and arresting three, he said.
He said during the last two years about seven dozen modules of various terrorist groups, including Lashker-e-Tayiba, Jaish-e-Mohammed and Harkat-ul Mujahideen, had been 'neutralised' in the capital.
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