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. India upgraded security at nuclear facilities amid terror warnings
NEW DELHI, Sept 6 (AFP) Sep 05, 2006
India has "completely revamped" security at its nuclear facilities following warnings of possible terror attacks, the country's national security advisor said Tuesday.

"We can assure you that we have completely revamped security for nuclear establishments... The arrangements are adequate for the threats we face," security advisor M.K. Narayanan told reporters without revealing details.

India's 22 military and civilian nuclear faclities are kept behind a three-tier security system manned by soldiers and anti-aircraft weapons while the atomic cores are enclosed inside blast-proof steel-and-concrete structures.

Security there was revamped after the US embassy warned last month that militants may be planning a series of blasts in the run-up to Independence Day, which passed without incidence.

Narayanan's comments came immediately after Prime Minister Manmohan Singh warned of spiralling leftwing and ethnic unrest as well as terror groups operating in rebellion-hit India.

In July, 183 people were killed and around 900 more injured in a wave of bomb attacks on rush-hour trains in financial capital Mumbai which India blamed on Islamist militants fighting Indian rule in disputed Kashmir.

Singh, addressing chief ministers and officials of India's 29 states, warned of more possible attacks.

"Intelligence agencies warn of a further intensification of violent activities on their part; use of suicide bombers; attacks on economic and religious targets; targeting of vital installations, including nuclear establishments, army camps; and the like," he said.

"Terrorist modules and sleeper cells (also) exist in some of our urban areas, all of which highlight the seriousness of the threat," the prime minister said in the national-level security conclave.

Singh ordered his security agencies to upgrade intelligence gathering to prevent a repeat of strikes such as the March 8 serial blasts in the holiest Hindu city of Varanasi and last October's bombings of New Delhi shopping malls.

The premier also asked law enforcement officials to counter a sense of alienation among India's 140 million Muslims and ensure that efforts to eliminate Islamist militancy did not victimise the whole community.

"It is unfortunate that terrorism has resulted in certain sections of our population being targetted, with a result that a wrong impression has been created of the radicalisation of the entire Muslim community," Singh said.

"No innocent person should be harassed in the struggle against terrorism," he said.

Home Minister Shivraj Patil later told reporters the security meeting had "evolved a roadmap" to battle terrorism.

"The government has also evolved a plan to provide coastal security and five billion rupees (108 million dollars) have been set aside" to acquire powerboats and manpower to police Indian coastline, he added.

India has been also discussing ways to stem the spread of Maoist insurgency, including plans for a 14,000-strong exclusive combat force.

Some 486 people have died in Maoist-related violence so far this year against 670 in all of 2005.

More than 44,000 people have died since 1989 in Kashmir, the Himalayan region disputed by rival Pakistan. Kashmir, where Islamic separatist militancy has taken root, is the only Muslim-majority state in mainly Hindu India.

An estimated 50,000 people have been killed in insurgency-related violence in India's northeast.

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