India intensifies coastal security after Sri Lanka blasts

Patrolling along India's eastern Coast has been intensified by the coastal security agencies in a coordinated manner to foil any infiltration in wake of the serial suicide bomb blasts in Sri Lanka, a senior police officer said on Monday.

"For the past two days, patrolling has been intensified along the coast in a coordinated manner with the Indian Coast Guard and Indian Navy," a senior official in the Coastal Security Group, speaking on the condition of anonymity, told IANS.

A strict vigil is also held along the coastal land, the official said, adding additional boats have been hired for the purpose of preventing any infiltration by suspected terrorists who had bombed the churches and hotels in Colombo.

According to him, all the personnel are on duty and based on the previous experience, patrolling was intensified in certain pockets.

Officials of Indian Coast Guard here were not available for comments despite several attempts. They even declined to share the name and number of the Public Relations Officers.

Meanwhile, police protection has been given to various churches in Tamil Nadu and also in a temple in Rameswaram.

On Easter Sunday, a series of bomb blasts in churches and hotels in Colombo killed 290 people and injuring over 500 people. The Sri Lankan government on Monday blamed local Muslim group National Thowheed Jamath (NTJ) for the serial bombings and said the attacks were "a colossal intelligence failure".

--IANS

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