NEW DELHI/BOMBAY, 12 August 2006 — Militants, possibly Al-Qaeda members, were planning to carry out a series of bombing attacks in major Indian cities and vital installations in the coming days, the US Embassy in Delhi warned yesterday.

One day after Britain said it had foiled a major plot to bomb trans-Atlantic airliners, the embassy said militants may be planning a series of blasts in the run-up to Independence Day next Tuesday. “The embassy has learned that foreign terrorists, possibly including members of Al-Qaeda, allegedly intend to carry out a series of bombing attacks in or around New Delhi and Bombay in the days leading up to India’s Independence Day,” the embassy said in a statement on its website.

“Likely targets include major airports, key central Indian government offices, and major gathering places such as hotels and markets,” it said.

“The embassy urges American citizens to maintain a low profile and be especially alert and attentive to their surroundings during this period.”

Embassy spokesman David Kennedy told CNN-IBN news channel that the information was based on intelligence inputs.

“The US embassy regularly shares information and works closely with the Indian government,” Kennedy said.

The Home Ministry’s top official said however there had been no sharing of intelligence on the embassy’s advisory.

“It is a very innocuous advisory. And that’s about it,” Home Secretary V.K. Duggal told reporters. “I have read the advisory. It’s an advisory to their own staff, we have no comments. It is normal for a mission to issue advisories whenever they have information. We too do the same thing ... I have only seen the advisory and there is no intelligence input shared with us.” Minister of State fort External Affair Anand Sharma told reporters in New Delhi that each year security is in any case tightened ahead of Independence Day celebrations, which are often targeted by militants fighting India’s rule in Kashmir.

“Our intelligence agencies are already on alert,” Sharma said. “We are aware that there is a threat, as India has been a target for militants.” Indian officials said however security had been further raised in the capital New Delhi and the financial hub Mumbai, capital of western Maharashtra state, with extra protection ordered for key facilities.

“Not only airports but we have information about other vital public installations which could be targeted,” Maharashtra Home Secretary A.P. Sinha said.

“We had been maintaining a high state of alert but after what happened in London yesterday we further intensified security,” Sinha said. Security was beefed up at Bhabha Atomic Research Center, state government secretariat, Sahar International Airport, Santa Cruz domestic airport, cinema halls, multiplexes, shopping malls, railway stations and bus terminals.

Police in New Delhi also stepped up security, including at the Indira Gandhi International Airport.

“The Delhi police backed by central intelligence and paramilitary agencies are maintaining the highest state of alert as part of our Independence Day security drill,” a senior official from the federal home ministry told AFP.

“All vital installations like bus and railway stations, airports, metro services and government buildings are under the scanner,” he said.

Police said security was also raised in the eastern city of Calcutta, where five guards of the American Center were killed in an attack by suspected militants on the facility in January 2001.

The Press Trust of India meanwhile reported that police in New Delhi had arrested two members of a Pakistani militant group suspected in a string of bombings in India, including last month’s attacks on Bombay’s commuter trains, which killed 207 people.

The news agency said the arresting officers believed they had foiled a terror plot by Lashkar-e-Taiba.

One of the two alleged Lashkar militants is Pakistani, and both were arrested late Thursday with 2 kg of a powerful explosive known as RDX, and a huge quantity of other ammunition, PTI reported. They were nabbed at New Delhi’s train station.

The Pakistani was identified only as Anaz, a native of Islamabad, and the other man as Abrar Ahmed, from the northern Indian state of Uttar Pradesh, PTI said.