Al Qaeda alert for India on national day

NEW DELHI: India deployed tens of thousands of security forces on the the eve of the 60th anniversary of independence after new threats by Al-Qaeda and separatist rebels, officials said on Tuesday.   

In New Delhi, some 70,000 policemen and paramilitary troops were being posted at government buildings, diplomatic enclaves and main intersections.   

Prime Minister Manmohan Singh was to kick off the celebrations on Wednesday from the city's 16th-century Mughal Red Fort which had already been sealed off to the public.   

"Our defence response is the same, whether the threat originates from the Al-Qaeda or the Lashkar-e-Taiba (Kashmiri separatist group)," the police security chief Samsher Deol told.  

But intelligence officials said Al-Qaeda's threat last week to target India had prompted stepped-up security for Independence Day.   

"There is nothing specific about the Al-Qaeda threat but we are not leaving anything to chance," added Deol, who is in-charge of anti-terrorism operations in the city of 14 million people.   

The threat came in a video on August 5 in which a wanted American member of Al-Qaeda warned US diplomatic missions and other interests were "legitimate targets."   

An unnamed narrator also warned that "the targeting of Tel Aviv, Moscow and Delhi" is also "our legitimate right." India was accused of "killing more than 100,000 Muslims in Kashmir with US blessing."   

In Assam, a string of shootings and blasts in the run-up to the celebrations, which separatists boycott to protest New Delhi's rule over the oil, tea and timber-rich state, has left 36 people dead.   

In Kashmir, a young boy and two men died and 19 people were injured Monday in a grenade blast at a busy market place, which was linked to Independence Day, police said, blaming Muslim militants.   

Kashmiri rebels and separatists observe India's Independence Day as a "Black Day," often launching attacks aimed at disrupting celebrations.   

New Delhi will be a no-fly-zone during Wednesday's celebrations and batteries of anti-aircraft guns and missiles backed by airforce gunships have already been deployed, defence ministry officials added.