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Putin to be accorded VVIP security

Tara Shankar Sahay in New Delhi

Russian President Vladimir Putin, who is arriving in New Delhi on October 2 on a four-day visit, will be accorded VVIP security.

A top intelligence official told rediff.com that the government was taking no chances. It had taken cognisance of Islamic terrorists trying to embarrass India by endangering Putin's security.

The Delhi police have rounded up "suspects", including a sizeable number of Afghan refugees in Lajpatnagar, Defence Colony and adjoining areas as a precautionary measure.

Officials from the ministry of home affairs refrained from commenting on whether Harkat-ul-Mujaheedin leaders had alerted contacts in Delhi.

Intelligence sources told rediff.com that transmitter messages from across the Kashmir border had been intercepted and were a cause for concern during Putin's visit.

The government is also taking extra precautions, monitoring the movement of Delhi-based Islamic radicals and their contacts. With the presence of Saudi terrorist Osama bin Laden in Afghanistan confirmed by the United States, intelligence officials are busy covering the capital with a security blanket.

According to ministry of external affairs sources, Russian authorities are monitoring the upswing in activities of Islamic radicals at the doorstep of Russia - Tajiskistan and Kyrgystan.

Moscow has already provided New Delhi a list of Islamic terrorists who could sneak into India.

Soon after the Soviet intervention in Afghanistan in 1980, many Afghan refugees in Delhi had expressed hostility against the political leadership in Moscow. When the late Soviet leader, President Leonid Brezhnev visited India after his country's intervention in Afghanistan, the then Indira Gandhi government had an anxious time looking after security.

A ministry of external affairs official said that arrangements for Putin's visit matched those during the visit of United States President Bill Clinton in March this year.

Clinton may have arrived in India with state-of-the-art gadgets and gizmos along with his country's secret servicemen to give him virtually foolproof security. It may not be the same with Putin. But an intelligence official said that Putin would be given security which matched that during the US president's visit."

Officials are peeved at media reports comparing Putin's visit with that of Clinton. External affairs ministry spokesman Raminder Singh Jassal said, "India's relations with Russia and the United States have their own dynamics and, therefore, it is futile to make a comparison."

Obviously, South Block is taking care not to hurt the 'sensibilities' of the Russian and American leaderships by making comparisons on the Indian visits of their presidents.

The Putin visit: The full coverage

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