Troops counter terrorist threats

INDIA will deploy an additional 1200 paramilitary officers -- including 200 sharpshooters -- to protect this month's World Cup hockey tournament in Delhi after al-Qa'ida-linked militants warned foreign athletes this week against competing.

Delhi Police Commissioner Y.S Dadwal said the decision to boost security at the February 28 to March 13 event -- considered a crucial test of the Indian capital's preparedness before October's Commonwealth Games -- had been made during an emergency meeting with India's home ministry.
 
 
"We have asked for additional forces and that has been given," Mr Dadwal said yesterday.
 
 
Notorious Kashmiri militant Ilyas Kashmiri issued the most direct threat yet to Games athletes and hockey competitors in an email sent to a Pakistan-based journalist for the Asia Times website within hours of last Saturday's terror strike on the Indian city of Pune, which killed 11 people and wounded dozens more.
 

Foreign Indian Premier League cricketers are also in the sights of Kashmiri who wrote: "We warn the international community not to send their athletes to the 2010 hockey World Cup, the Indian Premier League and Commonwealth Games.
 
"Nor should their people visit India.
 
"If they do they will be responsible for the consequences."
The New Zealand hockey team, which is in Perth, has delayed its travel to India after the latest threats.
 
Australian IPL players have already been targeted by Indian Hindu extremists Shiv Sena, which vowed last month to prevent them from playing in the Twenty20 tournament because of attacks against Indian students in Australia.
 
After weeks of thuggish posturing, Sena's octogenarian leader Bal Thackeray yesterday withdrew that threat, citing the concerns expressed by Australian-based Indians that it would make life more difficult for them.
 
While the Sena backdown will be good news for Australian players, Kashmiri represents a new, and potentially more serious, security headache.
 
Commonwealth Games Federation chief executive Mike Hooper told The Australian yesterday both the CGF and Indian authorities were taking the Kashmiri threat "very, very seriously".
 
"I am sure authorities at the appropriate levels are looking at the credibility of the report and the alleged threats made and will continue to reassess the threat assessment for the Games and adjust their security planning accordingly," Hooper said.
 
"Obviously with the backdrop of what occurred at the weekend in Pune, security is always the highest of concerns nowadays.
 
"We remain confident that we can deliver a safe and secure Games; clearly the first test of that will be the hockey World Cup in a few weeks."
 
Hooper added the final form of security arrangements for the event would be "reflective of the security threats at the time".
 
Australian cricketers with Indian Premier League contracts are nervously monitoring events in India and awaiting security advice from experts in the region.
 
The Australian Cricketers Association is hoping to meet the government in the next few days to get a security briefing and is awaiting an interim report from its own expert in the region.
 
ACA chief executive officer Paul Marsh said yesterday that the IPL was unique in that it involved players moving around the country and playing a number of venues which made them more vulnerable.
 
The hockey World Cup and the Commonwealth Games, Marsh said, were easier to secure because they were relatively static events.
 
"The IPL is different to those two things because we have eight teams playing in 12 venues; they will be travelling all over the country, staying in different hotels and not in athlete villages," he said.
 
"This creates a lot of logistical difficulties, everyone tells us the greatest risk for players is in transit and in hotels.
 
"The difficulty of providing a level of security for the IPL and the cricketers is greater and that's one of the factors we are working through at the moment."
 
Australia's Twenty20 captain Michael Clarke said the players were waiting to take advice.
 
"I don't know the exact detail on it, I only heard a few little bits about it this morning, but we're in pretty safe hands with Cricket Australia and the ACA making those sorts of decisions," Clarke said.
 
 
link : http://www.theaustralian.com.au/news/sport/troops-counter-terrorist-threats/story-e6frg7mf-1225831548225