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PM takes a houseboat ride
amid tight security

On his fourth day of vacation at the lake resort of Kumarakom on Friday, Prime Minister Atal Bihari Vajpayee took a three-hour ride in a houseboat through the Vembanad backwaters in the shadow of anti-aircraft guns and radars.

For three days, Vajpayee and family members have been unable to get into the Kettuvallam due to high winds, sporadic rain and a soggy climate.

As Vajpayee, along with family members rode through the backwaters, connected by a maze of palm-fringed canals and paddy fields, anti-aircraft guns took positions around the resort in Kumarakom as part of tight security for the prime minister.

Officials said following the threat from the Kashmiri militant outfit Lashkar-e-Tayiba, the army's defence artillery unit has set up anti-aircraft guns in Pathiramanal, a bird sanctuary in a neighbouring, small island in the backwaters.

Special units of the artillery and navy are guarding the air and water as part of stepped up security.

Rocket launchers and radars have been deployed in strategic places around the resort. Visitors' entry to the Pathiramanal bird sanctuary has been sealed off and the island is under the control of the army and navy.

Sources said the never-seen-before security had been deployed for Vajpajee following intelligence reports that rain-blanched coconut groves and waterways were high risk safety problems.

Officials said anti-aircraft guns have been stationed around the lake resort with strict orders to shoot any flying object in the vicinity of Kumarakom. The flight paths of all airlines operating between Thiruvananthapuram and Kochi have been changed.

Though the Prime Minister's Office said he was on a strictly private vacation, he is receiving a number of visitors every day.

On Friday, a group of Kerala members of Parliament led by Kottayam's Suresh Kurup met the prime minister and submitted a memorandum with a number of demands, including doubling of railway lines in Kerala.

Vajpayee also met M K Narayanan, former director of the Intelligence Bureau.

Narayanan is a member of two committees on national security established after the Kargil war. Official sources said Narayanan briefed him on security matters in Jammu and Kashmir under the cease-fire initiative.

As Vajpayee and family members moved through the backwaters for more than three hours, villagers and fishermen waved from far off.

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