More security for vital installations needed

After Bangalore it could well be the turn of Hyderabad and other upcoming information technology hubs across the country. Terror agents from across the border are now training their guns on soft economic targets such as IT hubs, security installations and other sensitive locations like power plants, say intelligence officials.

Officials in security agencies point out that the bomb blasts in Delhi's Sarojini Nagar market around Diwali was the first indication that terror targets will get progressively softer.

Other future targets can include nuclear installations such as the Nuclear Fuel Centre in Hyderabad and the heavy water reactor at Kalpakkam. The NTPC plant at Ramagundam could also become a target for a terrorist attack, they said.

Officials also said future terror attacks might move on a north-south axis with locations such as Lucknow and Banglaore and Hyderabad gaining currency on the terror map of the country. Officials also pointed out that terror attacks were now being coordinated from multiple locations, making it difficult for security agencies to track the movements of terrorists.

"Police and intelligence agencies had prior information about the terrorists attacks but were unable to pinpoint the location or the people involved in the attacks and could not track them," officials said. "Of late, it is becoming more difficult for security agencies to keep track of these activities as they are being coordinated from multiple locations. Infiltrators are being brought in from Dhaka, while the planning is done in Dubai and financial resources are being received from all over the world ."

In the absence of a centrally coordinated effort to track terrorist activities in the country, the response of the police and other agencies was localised and therefore it was much more difficult to track terror movements, officials said.

Agencies add: Vital defence, nuclear and scientific installations were today put under high security cover along with top scientists with deployment of quick reaction teams in the wake of the terror attack on the Indian Institute of Science in Bangalore. Defence Research and Development Organisation scientists, including those relating to India's missile programmes, in Delhi, Hyderbad, Pune, Kanpur, Gwalior and Bangalore, were provided additional personal security.

Defence Research and Development Organisation scientists, including those relating to India's missile programmes, in Delhi, Hyderbad, Pune, Kanpur, Gwalior and Bangalore were provided additional personal security.

Quick reaction teams were deployed at the Hindustan Aeronautics Ltd, Aircraft Development Agency(ADA), IAF training command headquarters as well as at Yelhanka air base near Bangalore.

Security was also beefed up at institutions like the Bhaba Atomic Research Centre, information technology parks in Bangalore, DRDO, Bharat Dynamics Ltd in Hyderabad.

The Indian Space Research Organisation sounded a red alert at all its institutions across the country including its headquarter in Bangalore.

The security cover for the next session of the Indian Science Congress, to be held in Hyderabad in January, has been reviewed and more stringent measures would be put in place, officials said in Delhi.

Prime Minister Manmohan Singh is slated to inaugurate the Congress, to be attended by more than 100 scientists from home and abroad, on January 3. President APJ Abdul Kalam is scheduled to address the Congress on January 5.