Thousands of police and paramilitary troops guarded New Delhi’s markets and shopping centers yesterday after foreign embassies in India issued warnings of imminent militant attacks.
The US, British, Australian and other Western embassies issued urgent alerts, advising their nationals to avoid busy parts of the city which was last hit by blasts in upmarket shopping areas in 2008 that killed 22 people and wounded 100 more.
Tighter security was already in place around the city’s congested markets and tourist hotspots in response to earlier warnings by Western nations about the chance of attacks in New Delhi.
Commandos backed by armored cars guarded metro stations, shopping malls and crowded marketplaces across the sprawling city of 16 million people.
Police with automatic weapons patrolled Delhi’s four most popular shopping districts and explosives experts used tracker dogs to sweep sensitive areas.
New Delhi police spokesman Rajan Bhagat urged residents to inform police of “any suspicious object, person or vehicle.”
India is home to a wide range of separatists and insurgents, but Islamist terror groups, both homegrown and from across the border in Pakistan, are considered the most dangerous threat.
Canada and New Zealand were among the countries warning citizens to take precautions in New Delhi, a rapidly expanding and chaotic city that is keen to bolster its international image ahead of hosting the Commonwealth Games in October.
Security concerns about the forthcoming Games were stoked last month when two low-intensity bombs went off at a cricket stadium in the southern city of Bangalore ahead of an Indian Premier League match.
Some 8,000 athletes are expected to attend the Commonwealth Games.
India has vowed to provide “foolproof” security for athletes and spectators during the Games. The London-based Commonwealth Games Federation has said security for the Indian event is subject to “continual review.”
The run-up to the field hockey World Cup in February and March was overshadowed by concerns some teams might pull out.
Ultimately, the tournament went ahead without incident with a heavy police presence.
The US posted an advisory on Saturday on the Web site of its embassy in India, saying that “there are increased indications that terrorists are planning imminent attacks in New Delhi.”
It named popular city center shopping zones, such as Connaught Place, as being “especially attractive targets for terrorist groups.”
The high commissions of Britain and Australia issued similar warnings, leading the Indian Ministry of Home Affairs to say that its security precautions were satisfactory.
“Security is adequate,” ministry spokesman Ravindra Singh said.
In February, a bomb exploded in a packed restaurant popular with travelers in the western Indian city of Pune, killing 16 people, including five foreigners.
It was the first major incident since the November 2008 Mumbai attacks in which 10 Islamist gunmen launched an assault on multiple targets in India’s financial capital, killing 166 people.
India blamed the Mumbai attacks on the banned Pakistan-based Islamist group Lashkar-e-Taiba, straining already tense diplomatic ties with its neighbor.
MONEY MATTERS: Xi was to highlight projects such as a new high-speed railway between Belgrade and Budapest, as Serbia is entirely open to Chinese trade and investment Serbian President Aleksandar Vucic yesterday said that “Taiwan is China” as he made a speech welcoming Chinese President Xi Jinping (習近平) to Belgrade, state broadcaster Radio Television of Serbia (RTS) said. “We have a clear and simple position regarding Chinese territorial integrity,” he told a crowd outside the government offices while Xi applauded him. “Yes, Taiwan is China.” Xi landed in Belgrade on Tuesday night on the second leg of his European tour, and was greeted by Vucic and most government ministers. Xi had just completed a two-day trip to France, where he held talks with French President Emmanuel Macron as the
With the midday sun blazing, an experimental orange and white F-16 fighter jet launched with a familiar roar that is a hallmark of US airpower, but the aerial combat that followed was unlike any other: This F-16 was controlled by artificial intelligence (AI), not a human pilot, and riding in the front seat was US Secretary of the Air Force Frank Kendall. AI marks one of the biggest advances in military aviation since the introduction of stealth in the early 1990s, and the US Air Force has aggressively leaned in. Even though the technology is not fully developed, the service is planning
INTERNATIONAL PROBE: Australian and US authorities were helping coordinate the investigation of the case, which follows the 2015 murder of Australian surfers in Mexico Three bodies were found in Mexico’s Baja California state, the FBI said on Friday, days after two Australians and an American went missing during a surfing trip in an area hit by cartel violence. Authorities used a pulley system to hoist what appeared to be lifeless bodies covered in mud from a shaft on a cliff high above the Pacific. “We confirm there were three individuals found deceased in Santo Tomas, Baja California,” a statement from the FBI’s office in San Diego, California, said without providing the identities of the victims. Australian brothers Jake and Callum Robinson and their American friend Jack Carter
CUSTOMS DUTIES: France’s cognac industry was closely watching the talks, fearing that an anti-dumping investigation opened by China is retaliation for trade tensions French President Emmanuel Macron yesterday hosted Chinese President Xi Jinping (習近平) at one of his beloved childhood haunts in the Pyrenees, seeking to press a message to Beijing not to support Russia’s war against Ukraine and to accept fairer trade. The first day of Xi’s state visit to France, his first to Europe since 2019, saw respectful, but sometimes robust exchanges between the two men during a succession of talks on Monday. Macron, joined initially by EU Commission President Ursula von der Leyen, urged Xi not to allow the export of any technology that could be used by Russia in its invasion