India tightens security at three major airports after threat

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THIRUVANANTHAPURAM, India, Mar 21 (AFP): India tightened security at three major airports in the southern state of Kerala after a call threatening attacks by Tamil Tiger sympathisers, police said Saturday.
Extra security measures were in place at the international airports of Kochi, Thiruvananthapuram and Kozhikode following the threat, the director general of police told the news agency.
"We are keeping high alert on the airports and surrounding areas since yesterday," Jacob Punnoose said.
The Central Intelligence Bureau, India's main spy agency, received an anonymous call Thursday saying that sympathisers of Sri Lankan separatist group the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE) were planning bomb attacks at one of the facilities.
Police have restricted the entry of vehicles and deployed more personnel and bomb squads in the affected areas, Punnoose said
They have also stepped up baggage screening and restricted visitor access, he added.
Sri Lanka's military says it is on the verge of defeating the Tamil Tigers, who have been waging a campaign since 1972 to create a separate Tamil homeland on the Sinhalese-majority island.
Kerala, on the southern tip of India, borders the state of Tamil Nadu, whose 55 million Tamils share close cultural and religious links with Sri Lanka's Tamils.
Tamil Nadu is separated from Sri Lanka by a narrow strip of water.
Last month the Indian Air Force was put on alert over reported aerial threats along the southern coast of the country after a deadly Tamil Tiger air raid on the Sri Lankan capital Colombo.
India has said that a Tamil Tiger ability to launch attacks by air or sea would be a threat to its national security.