Central Industrial Security Force Director General K M Singh has put his men on maximum alert after intelligence agencies tipped him off about a hijack attempt on flights bound to or from Nepal. The CISF is in charge of the security of all the airports in India.

"We received the tip-off from the Intelligence Bureau and the Research and Analysis Wing. We get such inputs on a regular basis and take preventive measures accordingly. The latest inputs say that Maoist militants (operating in Nepal) have plans to hijack an Indian plane from Tribhuvan Airport in Kathmandu. We have alerted all the 47 Indian airports under our command," Singh told rediff.com.

According to intelligence agencies, an alert has been sounded at all the airports and authorities have been told to put anti-hijacking measures in place in case any plane is hijacked and forced to land in an Indian airport.

Indian security officials are in touch with their Nepalese counterparts and are working jointly to prevent any hijack attempt.

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Indian Airlines operates flights to Nepal from Delhi, Varanasi and Kolkata. On August 1, Jet Airways and on September 1, Sahara Airlines also started operations on the Delhi-Kathmandu route.

The recent unrest in Nepal has already affected the business environment in the Himalayan kingdom. Indians constitute a major component of the tourists pouring into neighbouring Nepal. But the hijack threat might just bring down the number of Indian tourists. So far, none of the airlines has commented on the hijack threat.

Intelligence officials do not give much credence to the threat as they are of the view that the Maoists do not have the expertise to hijack a plane. "But we are not taking any chances and have already put our men at Tribhuvan Airport on maximum alert," a top Intelligence Bureau official told rediff.com on Tuesday.