Nepal sounds security alert at Tribhuvan airport

Nepal today raised its security alerts to the highest level and beefed up vigil at the Tribhuvan International Airport in Kathmandu in the wake of an alert sounded by India.

"We have issued high alert in view of a possible hijack plot," said Keshav Raj Khanal, director general of the Civil Aviation Authority of Nepal.

The Nepalese government raised the security levels after India issued alert of fresh threats by Pakistan-based Lashker-e-Taiba (LeT) and al-Qaeda-linked terrorists to hijack an Indian plane operating in south Asia.

Kathmandu's Tribhuvan international airport was the place from where an Indian Airlines aircraft IC 814 took off with 167 passengers before it was hijacked to Kandahar in Afghanistan on December 24, 1999 by Pakistani terrorist to free their leaders in Indian jails.

"The government has taken serious view in order to avert any untoward incident," a home ministry official said.

India issued fresh hijack alert yesterday following intelligence inputs from the West that terrorist groups linked with al-Qaeda, including LeT and Jamat-ul-Dawah (JuD) were planning to hijack an Air India plane, mainly operating to and from SAARC countries.