Taj under terror threat, security beefed up

AGRA: The Taj Mahal faces renewed threats from terrorists, prompting police here to beef up security arrangements around India's most important tourist destination.

"The recent security review necessitated enhancement of security all around the Taj Mahal," Agra Senior Superintendent of Police Dipesh Juneja said.

"The security review of the monument was a routine affair and this time intelligence inputs indicated a renewed militant threat to the monument.”

"We have already deployed additional cops at various strategic points around the monument this week, and we are drawing up a fresh plan for laying a beefed-up security net around periphery of the Taj," Juneja said.

He said the main focus was on the vast complex's open rear side overlooking the Yamuna river and Mehtab Bagh, from where infiltration could be made quite easily.

The government has sanctioned the deployment of 300 additional police personnel to beef up security around the Taj. Directives have also been issued to light up the area around the 17th century mausoleum to facilitate night vigil.

"The special contingent of 300 police personnel would be exclusively devoted to the external security of the monument on the same lines as had been done for the disputed shrines in Ayodhya, Mathura and Varanasi," he said.

The security arrangements of the monument that draws millions of tourists from different corners of the globe was in the hands of a private agency hired by Archaeological Survey of India (ASI) until 2002. The state police maintained round-the-clock vigil on the peripheral area including the three outer gates.

However, following a threat by a Kashmiri militant group to blow up the monument, the central and state governments had jointly decided to entrust Taj security to the Central Industrial Security Force (CISF).