MUMBAI - Indian police have increased security for star batsman Sachin Tendulkar, following media reports that a crime boss accused of masterminding an attack on a US cultural centre plans to kidnap the cricketer.
The reports said Farhan Malik, also known as Aftab Malik and Aftab Ansari, planned a wave of "terror strikes," including the killing of India's top missile scientist, A. P. J. Abdul Kalam, and the kidnapping of cricket captain Saurav Ganguly and Tendulkar.
A senior police official said yesterday that security around Tendulkar's home had been strengthened.
Under the alleged plot, Tendulkar would have been ransomed and Ganguly held in a bid to force the release of a jailed guerrilla belonging to the Lashkar-e-Taiba, one of two militant groups blamed by New Delhi for a December 13 attack on its parliament.
"Sachin Tendulkar is an important person of our country. He is our country's wealth and we will protect him," Bombay's Commissioner of Police M.N. Singh said.
Tendulkar, 28, is one of the biggest sports heroes in cricket-crazy India.
Singh said he did not want to discuss the threat to the ace batsman, who played in the fifth one-day match against England in New Delhi.
Witnesses said armed policemen had been deployed round-the-clock at Tendulkar's residence in an upmarket suburb in Mumbai, India's commercial capital.
Officials say Farhan's group and Lashkar staged last week's attack on the US cultural centre in the eastern Indian city of Calcutta.
Outlawed along with four other militant groups by Islamabad, Lashkar is said to have trained some of Farhan's men in Pakistan.
Police said they would provide security cover for the English and Indian teams when they arrived in Bombay for their final one-day match tomorrow.
"We will certainly make elaborate security arrangements for both the teams in Bombay."
- REUTERS
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