Pakistan's ISI may target India's key economic centres and important installations

New Delhi: A new terror module trained by Pakistan’s Inter-Services Intelligence has reportedly entered India to strike at key economic installations like the Reserve Bank headquarters and the Bombay Stock Exchange. Inputs by the Intelligence Bureau shared with key law enforcement agencies across India indicated this group entered the country via the Rajasthan border and is learnt to have moved towards Pune.

The IB also warned other ISI-backed terror modules in India were planning to strike at New Delhi’s Tihar Jail, Bengaluru, the BSF headquarters in Jalandhar, Patiala Jail in Punjab, and Avantipura in J&K, among others targets.

Top intelligence officials said the ISI was hatching a plot to simultaneously carry out terror strikes in certain cities and also target nerve centres of the Indian economy like the Reserve Bank and the stock exchange in Mumbai.

The module is suspected to have entered India sometime in early August and was now trying to sneak into the key industrial hub of Pune, Maharashtra, from Rajasthan, and then head for Mumbai. This module will be supplied with arms and ammunition by local sleeper cells, the sources said.

Law enforcement agencies in Rajasthan and Maharashtra were briefed by IB officials about this last month and told to maintain a high level of vigil at vital installations.

Intelligence officials said all agencies in New Delhi and other cities were asked to strengthen the security cover of high-risk VVIPs and VIPs, and beef up security at Tihar Jail and other key locations.

All security agencies have been asked to keep a close watch on the movement of suspicious individuals towards the nation’s capital.