NEW DELHI/WASHINGTON: Determined to demonstrate its continued resilience in a spectacular fashion, Pakistan-based terror group Lashkar-e-Taiba (LeT) has set its sights on the prestigious National Defence College in Delhi, two high-profile boarding schools in north India and tourist destinations frequented by foreigners ahead of the 26/11 anniversary.
The selection of targets has been done because of their potential to get the LeT worldwide attention, and reflect the same scale of planning that went into plotting the atrocity on Mumbai a year ago.
Home ministy sources said LeT's plan to hit NDC -- located in the heart of New Delhi opposite Gandhi Smriti on Tees January Marg -- was revealed during interrogation of David Coleman Headley and Tahawwur Hussain Rana, Pakistani expatriates arrested by FBI in US. Targets like elite boarding schools in north Indian hills and tourist spots, mainly in Goa and Kerala, were tagged after intelligence authorities here cracked terror sleeper cells.
The disclosure by FBI and the investigation by IB may also help explain home minister P Chidambaram's warning to Pakistan last week that India would retaliate if targeted by terrorists again. On Wednesday, Army chief General Deepak Kapoor spoke in the same vein, signalling the concern in the government.
After the three-day mayhem in Mumbai got LeT global attention, the group is now desperate to repeat a strike, at vulnerable soft targets -- be it renowned institutions or tourist destinations.
In a Chicago court on Tuesday, US prosecutors said Headley (formerly Daood Gilani) and Rana had discussed the NDC in New Delhi among five potential targets in India and Denmark, as they sought to keep the duo in custody.
Court papers filed by the FBI on Tuesday said that on a long automobile drive in September, Rana and Headley "discussed Denmark and other targets, including the NDC in India", developing on the earlier affidavit that they had discussed an unspecified "defence college" as a potential terrorist target.
While opposing Rana's bail application, prosecutors scoffed at the defence plea that their client had been "duped" into taking part in the terror plot by Headley and he believed it was all a joke, by producing exchanges between the two men that showed the seriousness of the plot.
Though officials in New Delhi were tight-lipped over specifics of other targets mentioned by the terror duo in the US court, they hinted that "the places frequented by foreigners" were obvious vulnerable spots.
Concerned authorities have been alerted to take adequate security measures.
Terrorists have targeted tourists -- from Bali to Egypt to Mumbai -- to garner publicity and cripple tourism with, relatively speaking, little risk.
As a visit by TOI correspondents revealed, the NDC is indeed quite vulnerable. There are only unarmed private security guards at the gates of an institution where around 100 senior military and civil services officers, including 25 foreigners, study national security and strategic issues at any given time.
Asked about the LeT plan to target NDC, minister of state for defence M M Pallam Raju on Wednesday said, "There is a constant review of threat perceptions and targets... You can rest assured that adequate precaution is taken wherever there is a threat perception."
"We are taking all kinds of measures in terms of coordinating intelligence sharing and information gathering in order to prevent an event like 26/11 from happening," he said, adding the government was also working to ensure improved `response time' of security agencies to any emergency.
Expressing outrage at the repeated attacks by Pakistan-based terrorists on Indian targets, Army chief General Deepak Kapoor, in turn, declared enough was enough. "The US has not allowed a second 9/11 to happen, Indonesia has not allowed a second Bali-bombing to happen," he said.
"India has allowed people to get away after the Parliament attack, Delhi blasts and finally the 26/11 incident. The time has come for all of us to say no more," he added.
Holding that the country "cannot afford to witness a repeat of 26/11", the Army chief stressed the need to forge ahead towards acquiring "a nation-wide architecture" to facilitate swifter intelligence flow, decision-making and execution of operations.
The selection of targets has been done because of their potential to get the LeT worldwide attention, and reflect the same scale of planning that went into plotting the atrocity on Mumbai a year ago.
Home ministy sources said LeT's plan to hit NDC -- located in the heart of New Delhi opposite Gandhi Smriti on Tees January Marg -- was revealed during interrogation of David Coleman Headley and Tahawwur Hussain Rana, Pakistani expatriates arrested by FBI in US. Targets like elite boarding schools in north Indian hills and tourist spots, mainly in Goa and Kerala, were tagged after intelligence authorities here cracked terror sleeper cells.
The disclosure by FBI and the investigation by IB may also help explain home minister P Chidambaram's warning to Pakistan last week that India would retaliate if targeted by terrorists again. On Wednesday, Army chief General Deepak Kapoor spoke in the same vein, signalling the concern in the government.
After the three-day mayhem in Mumbai got LeT global attention, the group is now desperate to repeat a strike, at vulnerable soft targets -- be it renowned institutions or tourist destinations.
In a Chicago court on Tuesday, US prosecutors said Headley (formerly Daood Gilani) and Rana had discussed the NDC in New Delhi among five potential targets in India and Denmark, as they sought to keep the duo in custody.
Court papers filed by the FBI on Tuesday said that on a long automobile drive in September, Rana and Headley "discussed Denmark and other targets, including the NDC in India", developing on the earlier affidavit that they had discussed an unspecified "defence college" as a potential terrorist target.
While opposing Rana's bail application, prosecutors scoffed at the defence plea that their client had been "duped" into taking part in the terror plot by Headley and he believed it was all a joke, by producing exchanges between the two men that showed the seriousness of the plot.
Though officials in New Delhi were tight-lipped over specifics of other targets mentioned by the terror duo in the US court, they hinted that "the places frequented by foreigners" were obvious vulnerable spots.
Concerned authorities have been alerted to take adequate security measures.
Terrorists have targeted tourists -- from Bali to Egypt to Mumbai -- to garner publicity and cripple tourism with, relatively speaking, little risk.
As a visit by TOI correspondents revealed, the NDC is indeed quite vulnerable. There are only unarmed private security guards at the gates of an institution where around 100 senior military and civil services officers, including 25 foreigners, study national security and strategic issues at any given time.
Asked about the LeT plan to target NDC, minister of state for defence M M Pallam Raju on Wednesday said, "There is a constant review of threat perceptions and targets... You can rest assured that adequate precaution is taken wherever there is a threat perception."
"We are taking all kinds of measures in terms of coordinating intelligence sharing and information gathering in order to prevent an event like 26/11 from happening," he said, adding the government was also working to ensure improved `response time' of security agencies to any emergency.
Expressing outrage at the repeated attacks by Pakistan-based terrorists on Indian targets, Army chief General Deepak Kapoor, in turn, declared enough was enough. "The US has not allowed a second 9/11 to happen, Indonesia has not allowed a second Bali-bombing to happen," he said.
"India has allowed people to get away after the Parliament attack, Delhi blasts and finally the 26/11 incident. The time has come for all of us to say no more," he added.
Holding that the country "cannot afford to witness a repeat of 26/11", the Army chief stressed the need to forge ahead towards acquiring "a nation-wide architecture" to facilitate swifter intelligence flow, decision-making and execution of operations.
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