Qaeda warns India of serial attacks

High-level meet to take stock of nation's security.

Al Qaeda has warned India that it should be "ready" for a series of terror attacks. The warning says the outfit will also target Israel, Russia and the United States, CNN-IBN reported today.

The threat is contained in a new video featuring Adam Yahiye Gadahn, an American member of Al Qaeda, who says Indian and American diplomatic missions all over the world are their legitimate targets.

Intelligence sources have describe this as an "extended threat". This is the first time the outfit has mentioned India and another country together.

Sources in the home ministry told CNN-IBN that the "threat cannot be taken lightly" although all security systems are in place. A high-level meeting is likely to review security measures. Intelligence agencies are looking into the origin of the CD which contained the video. "We shall continue to target you at home and abroad just as you target us at home and abroad," said Gadahn, a wanted member of the group, accusing India of killing more than hundred thousand Muslims in Kashmir with US blessing. The video, a quarter-and-an-hour long, also has Gadahn warning US President George Bush to withdraw troops from the Muslim lands or expect a worse attack than September 11.

Responding to the threat, Minister of State for Home Sri Prakash Jaiswal said, "We are confident the country is prepared to handle any kind of threat by the terror outfit."

He, however, denied receiving any official statement. "Despite reports from the media, we haven't received any official confirmation regarding the threat. But our country's paramilitary and security forces are ready to combat any attack of any kind," he added.

Earlier, in a TV18 network report, National Security Advisor MK Narayanan told Karan Thapar that Al Qaeda was looking for an opportunity to strike in India and had done the necessary reconnaissance.

"We are concerned. We are all the time on the lookout for Al Qaeda's movements here. We know that on a couple of occasions they did a reccee and went back. But they have not yet done something which is terrorising in a big way," he said.

He hinted that the Al Qaeda groups had in the past surveyed various areas in India. "There was a team that had come once to India and done a reccee and gone back, but their programme never worked out," he added.

Narayanan said the LeT was an "integral part of al Qaeda. In a sense you can always say that Al Qaeda is present in India."