Hyderabad along with three other southern cities was specifically alerted by central security agencies about possible attacks by Pakistan-based terror groups to avenge the hanging of 26/11 terrorist Ajmal Kasab and Parliament attack convict Afzal Guru, sources said today.
Government sources said acting on intelligence inputs, the security agencies conveyed to police of the four southern cities -- Hyderbad, Bangalore, Coimbatore and Hubli -- and Maharashtra and Gujarat governments about possible attacks by the terror outfits and asked them to intensify security in all sensitive areas.
However, they said it was wrong to blame Andhra Pradesh Police for yesterday's twin blasts in Hyderabad as even though the information was to specific cities, there was no mention of time and place as such details are rarely known.
Apart from a general advisory sent to all states on February 19, the specific information was shared with the four cities and two western states on February 21 morning.
The alerts suggested that Pakistan-based terrorist groups may carry out attacks in one of the places to avenge the hanging of 26/11 terrorist Ajmal Kasab and Parliament attack convict Afzal Guru, sources said.
In their subsequent advisories, the central security agencies asked all states to tighten security in sensitive places as Lashkar-e-Taiba, Jaish-e-Mohammad, Hizbul Mujahideen and Indian Mujahideen may launch terror attacks.
Soon after the twin blasts rocked Hyderabad killing 16 people and leaving 117 injured last night, Home Minister Sushilkumar Shinde had said all states were alerted about a possible terror strike by militant groups.
However, Andhra Pradesh Chief Minister Kiran Kumar Reddy had said those were general alerts which often keep coming from the Centre.
