Airports step up security over hijack fears
Reuters, afp, New Delhi
Security has been stepped up at a string of major Indian and Nepali airports after warnings that a flight to or from Nepal could be hijacked, a security official said.Security at Nepal's only international airport has been tightened after an intelligence tip-off that a flight to India could be hijacked, officials said yesterday. "Security has been kept on high alert for the last five days after we got Indian intelligence reports that a flight from Kathmandu could be hijacked," Loknath Gautam, security chief at Tribhuvan International Airport, told AFP. The alert was issued after a New Delhi court ordered Mohammed Afzal, convicted for his role in a 2001 attack on the Indian parliament, to be hanged on Oct 20. Afzal's wife on Tuesday asked the president of India, APJ Abdul Kalam, to pardon her husband, and his decision is awaited. "We have received a specific intelligence input that terrorists may plan to hijack a plane to or from Kathmandu in response to the hanging," the official, who asked not to be named, told Reuters.
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