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CWG: UK, US intel teams in Delhi to foil attacks

October 05, 2010 12:05 IST

United Kingdom, United States of America and Australia have sent their intelligence teams to India to help foil any terrorist attacks on the ongoing Commonwealth Games in New Delhi by Pakistan-based terror groups, a report in the Daily Telegraph stated.

The three governments apprehend that a repeat of a 26/11 Mumbai-type attack, in which 166 people including foreigners were killed, on the Games could trigger a new war between the two nuclear-armed South Asian neighbours, the report added.

Such a war would also undermine Pakistan's cooperation in the war against the Taliban and the Al Qaeda, whose support has been conditional on assurances of peace with India, the report indicated.

Last week Leon Panetta, US' Central Intelligence Agency director, visited Islamabad. According to Indian sources, he warned Pakistani President Asif Zardari and Gen Ashfaq Kayani, the chief of the army staff, that Washington expected their co-operation in preventing any terrorist attacks on the Games. He later visited New Delhi to brief his Indian counterparts, the report stated.

Britain, USA and Australia have sent about two dozen senior intelligence officials to Delhi last year as the preparations for the CWG intensified, sources told Daily Telegraph.

Officials in UK believe India's security agencies will return the assistance during London's Olympic Games in 2012.

In recent weeks, reports from Pakistan have suggested Brigade 313, an Al Qaeda affiliate, was also planning attacks on the CWG, the report noted.