Commonwealth Games faced serious al Qaeda, LeT threat

In a revelation that could make many skip a heartbeat, a high-ranking home ministry official told DNA on Friday, a day after the successful conclusion of the 19th Commonwealth Games (CWG), that CWG faced a serious combined threat from al Qaeda and Lashkar-e-Taiba (LeT).

The official said the dreaded terror outfits had planned to drop armed paragliders at Games venues.

Central intelligence agencies had received specific information just before the Games began that the outfits were planning to attack CWG venues on October 12 or 13, he said.

“There is evidence to prove that highly motivated terrorists were trained somewhere on the Afghanistan-Pakistan border to carry out this operation using high-quality explosives,” the official said.

After the input was received, an additional ring of security was put in place, for which more troops were requisitioned from Jalandhar and Chandigarh.
“The reports suggested that Jawaharlal Nehru Stadium, the venue for the opening ceremony, was also to be stormed by paragliders,” the official said.

“It is learnt that 40 sharpshooters from the army and the elite National Security Guard were deployed at the stadium with shoot-at-sight orders. They were empowered to shoot down any helicopter or plane seen paradropping people,” an intelligence agency source said.

What added to the alarm was that some Pakistani diplomats repeatedly offered help to deal with possible explosive threats during meetings with home ministry officials.

“The resultant suspicion led to more precautionary measures being put in place to meet this threat,” a ministry official said.