Reuters AlertNet Lite - India tightens security at Goa's beach resorts

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India tightens security at Goa's beach resorts

01 Nov 2006 07:51:25 GMT
Source: Reuters

MUMBAI, Nov 1 (Reuters) - India has tightened security in its southern resort state of Goa amid fears of a terrorist attack ahead of the tourist season and an international film festival there, officials said on Wednesday.

New Delhi has been on a heightened security alert -- with fears of more attacks across the country, particularly in New Delhi and Mumbai -- since the July bombings on Mumbai's rail network that killed 186 people.

Indian Prime Minister Manmohan Singh said in September that intelligence agencies had warned more terrorist attacks were likely, possibly on economic and religious targets as well as on nuclear installations.

"Whether there is a specific threat or not, it is a fact that the tourist season is a high-impact time for any terror attack," J.P. Singh, the senior most bureaucrat in Goa, told Reuters.

"We have to see that we don't have a Bali-like incident."

At least 202 people, many of them holidaying foreigners, were killed on the Indonesian island of Bali in 2002, an attack blamed on the al-Qaida-linked militant group Jemaah Islamiyah.

A Goa police officer, who spoke on condition of anonymity, said the state had been warned by central intelligence agencies that there could be an attack.

Goa's pristine beaches and swaying palm groves attract hundreds of thousands of tourists every year, many of them foreigners, but the state's relaxed, languid lifestyle is also seen as making it a soft target for terrorists.

Britons make up the bulk of foreign tourists.

The picturesque state by the Arabian Sea is also the venue of an annual international film festival which begins later this month.

"We are sensitising people to watch out for any criminal or suspicious activity," Goa's police chief B.S. Brar told Reuters, denying that he had received any specific threat alert.

"But we have increased vigil manifold because of the tourist season. We are not a soft target any more."

Intelligence agencies have warned attacks could be carried out by suicide bombers and might also target Indian army camps and other vital installations such as nuclear plants.

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Last updated:Wed Nov 1 07:53:26 2006