Terror alert in Delhi, Indore, Kanpur after Pune blast

NEW DELHI - A general alert was sounded across the country and the cities of New Delhi, Indore and Kanpur put on high alert Sunday, a day after a bomb blast ripped through a popular eatery in Pune killing nine people.

Union Home Minister P. Chidambaram reviewed the security scenario at a high level meeting in the capital after which he went to meet Prime Minister Manmohan Singh at his 7 Race Course Road residence.

The alerts were issued following the emergency security review meeting, an official said.

The official said they had some specific inputs that pointed to a possible terrorist strike in the national capital, in Indore in Madhya Pradesh or Kanpur in Uttar Pradesh.

The respective state governments have been asked to beef security at vital installations and crowded places — potential targets of terrorists, the official said.

States have been asked to step up security in the wake of Saturday’s blast in a popular eatery in Pune - a major attack after the 26/11 mayhem in Mumbai.

The chiefs of intelligence agencies - Intelligence Bureau, Research and Analysis Wing, National Investigation Agency, Central Bureau of Investigation, and top officials in the home ministry attended the meeting which also reviewed the existing threat perception. Other details of the meeting were not immediately known.

Chidambaram later held a 20-minute meeting with Manmohan Singh and briefed him on the latest security situation following the Pune blast. The two also discussed the progress in the blast probe, an official in the Prime Minister’s Office (PMO) said.

“The prime minister is confident that the blast case will be cracked soon,” the official said.

In the morning, Chidambaram visited the blast site in Pune. He ruled out any intelligence failure that led to the terrorist strike.