Hyderabad not a terrorist hub: Chidambaram

By Mohammed Siddique, TwoCircles.net,

Hyderabad: Union Home Minister P Chidambaram today strongly denied that Hyderabad had become a terror hub and said that it was wrong to brand any city of the country as terrorist hub.

Talking to the media on the sidelines of inauguration of the regional hub of National Security Guards in Hyderabad on Wednesday, Chidambaram confirmed that the government had received the intelligence input that there could be a threat to the west coast from terrorists. He said as per the practice recently established the input was immediately shared by the central government with three states of Gujarat, Goa and Maharashtra. “These inputs are intended to prepare us in case it materializes but let me hasten to assure you that does not meant that there will be imminent terror attack”, he said.

When a reporter asked whether Hyderabad had become a terror hub, Chidambaram quipped, “It is a wrong word. No city is a hub of terrorist. I don’t think you should brand any city as hub of terrorism”.

“Hyderabad came up on radar screen about three weeks ago and we shared the input immediately with the state government and commissioner (of police) made a public alert and they were looking for some people but nothing materialized. You see all these inputs do not mean that immediately there would be a terrorist attack”, he said adding that the intelligence input the central government was picking up was being immediately shared with the state governments.

On a question about the special security for Tirumala temple, the Chief Minister Y S Rajasekhara Reddy, who was present in the press conference, said that the state government was considering a proposal to raise a special security force for the purpose. It can be raised within the state on the lines of Industrial Security Force or the personnel can be drawn from the Central Reserve Police Force and other paramilitary forces, he said.