India unsettled by warning of an attack by air
A reported e-mailed threat refers to Hindus' destruction of a mosque in 1992, which may have also been a motive for the Mumbai attacks. Airport security throughout the country is heightened.
Reporting from Islamabad, Pakistan, and New Delhi — India remains on edge amid reports of a threat of an attack by air, adding to people's fears of vulnerability after last week's brazen rampage by gunmen who landed on Mumbai's famed shoreline by boat.
The new threat was contained in an e-mailed warning that referred to the coming anniversary Saturday of one of the most inflammatory events in India's recent history: the destruction of a centuries-old mosque in the north Indian town of Ayodhya by Hindu mobs in 1992. That incident has been a flashpoint of religious tension throughout South Asia.
Survivors of last week's attacks in Mumbai, which left more than 170 people dead, have been quoted as saying that at least one of the gunmen cited revenge for what happened in Ayodhya as a motive for their coordinated assault on luxury hotels and other busy spots in India's biggest metropolis.
Early today, Indian commandos combed New Delhi's international airport after reports that shots had been fired there. The cause of the scare remained unclear, but an airport official reached by telephone said that no one had been killed; an initial report by the British Broadcasting Corp. said Indian security forces had shot dead six gunmen.
The airport, which serves many international flights in the early morning hours, was operating normally by 3 a.m, Reuters reported.
Although the threat of an airborne attack focused on the capital, New Delhi, and the southern cities of Bangalore and Chennai, formerly known as Madras, airports throughout the country went on high alert. Authorities added extra layers of security, including beefed-up patrols of armed guards and sniffer dogs and more thorough inspections of passengers and their belongings.
"We are prepared as usual," Fali Homi Major, chief of the Indian Air Force, told reporters.
That statement, however, was not likely to reassure many Indians, who have reacted with incredulity and growing anger to news that their government failed to act on repeated intelligence, including from the United States, warning of a possible terrorist attack on Mumbai by sea. Tens of thousands of Indians have taken to the streets in protest, accusing the government of not protecting its citizens.
Wednesday night, Vilasrao Deshmukh, the chief minister of Maharashtra state, of which Mumbai is the capital, became the latest political casualty of the attacks when the country's ruling Congress Party accepted his resignation from office.
