India on high alert as Hindu festival begins
A police spokesman said the lethal arsenal was the largest haul in Indian Kashmir since Islamic militancy erupted in the region in 1989. Some 300 kilograms (660 pounds) of the deadliest military explosive, RDX, were found in a private car in the southern town of Doda, 185 kilometres (114 miles) from Indian Kashmir's winter capital Jammu, a police official said. Doda police chief Sunil Kumar said the car had New Delhi registration plates. "This is the biggest haul of RDX since the beginning of militancy in Kashmir and our information is that part of the explosives was to be used at a public gathering on Friday night," Kumar told AFP. The holiest Hindu period of Navratras signals a month of festivities that culminates with Diwali, or the carnival of lights, on October 25, which is celebrated by hundreds of millions of Indians. "Two kitchen cookers found in the car were packed with 50 kilograms of RDX each and primed with detonators while the remaining explosives were in gunny bags," Indian army spokesman colonel R.K. Sen said, adding that batteries and a remote control device had also been found. "We destroyed the two cookers, which are also used by militants as landmines, and disabled the remaining arsenal," Sen told AFP. "If the entire cache was used at one go the effect would have been catastrophic but we think the militants were planning to use the RDX for separate attacks," the colonel said. RDX, or cyclotrimethylene trinitramine, is considered the most powerful of high explosives used by militaries the world over. The army spokesman said a joint police and army squad picked up two people in connection with the seizure but declined to give details. In the capital New Delhi, police went on high security alert and put hospitals and the fire department on standby as the festival began. "We are also sensitising people to the various needs of security and the role the public must play as spectators and organisers of (Hindu) programmes," Joint Police Commissioner Maxwell Pereira told a news conference. Pereira and other top officials at the joint news conference offered no details but hinted at possible attacks during the period, which also includes the four-day Durga Puja when devotees gather for public prayers. "There are specific intelligence inputs suggesting that there is no change in the threat perception concerning the capital and in view of this report, special security measures have been adopted for the festival season," Pereira said. The official said the fire department, hospitals and bomb disposal squads too have laid out emergency plans to respond to possible attacks during the period when more than 1,000 separate religious events take place in New Delhi. Security was also tightened in the western commercial hub of Bombay where two deadly car bomb explosions left 52 people dead earlier this month. pk/mmc India-festival-security
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