Nation on alert after recent militant attack: Shinde

Tirupati: Union Home Minister Sushilkumar Shinde has said the nation is on alert in the wake of the recent attack by militants after the execution of sole survivor of the Mumbai attacks.

Shinde told the reporters in the temple town of Tirupati in Andhra Pradesh that the government is taking all precautions to avert such attacks in the future. “I have already told and we have alerted the whole country after the two executions of Kasab and Afzal Guru, the intelligence branch has already alerted the whole country that there is likelihood from our neighbouring country. And this has happened. Still we are alerting in the country, but we have taken full precautions,” he said. Recently, twin blasts rocked southern Hyderabad city in which 16 people were killed. Shinde had said after the attack, India had intelligence agency warnings of a security threat several days before two bombs went off in a market in the city of Hyderabad on February 21. The explosions had come less than two weeks after India hanged Afzal Guru for his involvement in an attack on Parliament in 2001. Authorities say a bomb that killed 17 at Delhi High Court in 2011 was planted by militants who wanted Guru`s death sentence commuted. The execution of Guru came after Indian government had secretly hanged Mohammad Ajmal Kasab, the lone survivor of the Pakistan-based militant squad responsible for a rampage through Mumbai that killed 166 people. Shinde also said that they have also made progress in the case of the recent encounter with paramilitary forces and militants that left five troopers and two militants dead on March 13. The militants were killed in a gunfight at the paramilitary CRPF (Central Reserve Police Force) base just outside the restive city of Srinagar, which has been under curfew for much of the last few weeks following protests and clashes with police. “The militants, the Fidayeen, the suicide bombers who had come, they were killed. Rest, those who had come along with them, we were able to find out which is one, we were able to find out where they were given shelter, that everything, every investigation is on. And we are quite capable now to get those who are hiding,” said Shinde. Shinde had on March 14 said Pakistan-made items were found on the two militants killed in the encounter outside a public school in Srinagar. One person, alleged to be one of the militants from the encounter, was arrested by the police in Srinagar on March 16. Shinde further said that they have also made progress regarding the Hyderabad twin blasts case and would be sharing the information with the media soon. “Regarding the bomb blast, some progress has been made. Soon you will listen, you will see that progress,” said Shinde. ANI