Those who were blaming the Indian Government for allowing IPL travel to offshore might be breaking into cold sweat now, following the surfacing of US intelligence report that IPL could have experienced the ultimate mayhem if it was not exported outside Indian borders in time. The terrorists’ secret blue print has been cracked; thanks to Stratfor - one of the leading providers of strategic intelligence on global security affairs. It said Indian Premier League was on the hit list of Islamic terror groups and about to suffer a 26/11 style terror strike. While all the high profile players of international cricket were targeted, the Karnataka and AP matches were more on the radar of the planners.

(Read Cricket360 related article "India Should Beware of Terrorist Strikes on Cricket too")

 

 

Stratfor said it had gathered intelligence information from various sources, and on analyzing them it had come to conclusion that upcoming IPL cricket tournament could be the target of a major militant operations. It informed the media, that it was the Indian security sources that had supplied information in this regard early on. The attack could have been as large scale as the November’s Mumbai attack, warned the security think tank.

There were special warning for these two states - Andhra Pradesh and Karnataka. Being the IT hub of the country, these two states have largest foreigner’s presence and that make them particularly vulnerable to the militant attacks.  “Warnings of specific threats against the players came from the governments of the states hosting matches, including Andhra Pradesh and Karnataka. Given that these two states respectively are home to the information technology hubs of Hyderabad and Bangalore — both of which have a heavy foreign presence — and are where multinational corporations doing business in India are concentrated, these states are at a particularly high risk of attack,” the think-tank said.

Stratfor also said that the Lahore incident, in which the Sri Lankan cricketers and officials were attacked, should be treated as an eye opener for the administration. The incident clearly points out to the terrorists’ intentions - in order to internationalize their causes, they will now strike for making more devastating impact and what can be more lucrative target than one and half month long twenty-20 tournament, a platform where top shots of international cricket mingle with the who’s who of the glamour world! The intelligence advisor clearly hints that moving IPL was a prudent decision after the state security sources presented their analysis of the threat perception for the upcoming IPL cricket tournament and Loksabha elections.

The global think tank also said that although no outfit so far claimed the responsibility for the Lahore terror attack, there were reasons to believe that Lashkar-e-Taiba had its hands in it. The way the operation was carried out clearly indicated that Pakistan’s ISI created and nurtured the militant group was behind the incident. IPL would have made another major target for Lashkar, whose main focus is on India, US think tank informed.

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3.25 Copyright (C) 2007 Alain Georgette / Copyright (C) 2006 Frantisek Hliva. All rights reserved."

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