New Delhi airport gets security scare

NEW DELHI, India (CNN) -- Indian police swiftly handled a "security scare" at New Delhi's major airport early Friday amid heightened concern in the wake of last week's terror attack in which gunmen killed 179 people in Mumbai.

New Delhi police spokesman Rajan Bhagat said police responded to reports of gunfire at Indira Gandhi International Airport but found no casualties or damage. Bhagat said there was "no terror threat."

"And there's no cause of panic," he added.

Uday Banerjee, the head of India's Central Industrial Security Force, told reporters at the airport that something sounding like gunshots was heard, but no one saw anything and no bullet casings were found.

Indian authorities stepped up security at the nation's airports on Thursday after receiving intelligence reports that terrorists might be planning an air attack.

At Indira Gandhi, four armed police stood guard at each entrance, and people waiting for arriving passengers were not allowed inside. Video Watch what triggered the security scare there »

"There have been intelligence inputs about some terrorist activity, and therefore security has been tightened (at airports)," civil aviation spokesperson Moushmi Chakraborty told CNN.

Police beefed up security at all airports including in the capital New Delhi, Mumbai, Chennai and Bangalore, Chakraborty said.

A spokesman for the Indian Navy, Cmdr. Nirad Sinha, also confirmed to CNN that security officials had received warnings about an airborne attack. Video Watch more on increase in security »

The Press Trust of India, a nonprofit newspaper cooperative, said that reports had suggested that terrorists could have sneaked into the country to carry out strikes on the anniversary of the Babri mosque demolition. The mosque -- one of the largest in the Uttar Pradesh state -- was destroyed on December 6, 1992, by Hindu nationalists who believe it was built on the site of an existing temple.

On Wednesday India's defense minister met with the chiefs of the army, air force and navy and discussed what the ministry in a news statement called "possible terror threats from air."

The officials also discussed the country's coastal security plans and how to tighten security along the military line of control dividing the disputed region of Kashmir between India and Pakistan to "prevent infiltration of terrorists," the statement said.

Authorities: Mumbai attackers had help

(CNN) -- The attackers who killed nearly 180 people last week in Mumbai, India, had help from a Bangladeshi national, Indian security sources told CNN sister network CNN-IBN. The Bangladeshi national bought cell phone SIM cards for the attackers at several locations inside India, the sources said Thursday.

SIM cards -- subscriber identity modules -- are portable memory-chips that make it easy to switch cell phones. Intelligence experts say they're used by terrorists to throw their pursuers off the trail.

Indian authorities believe all the attackers were Pakistanis, specifically blaming Lashkar-e-Tayyiba (LeT), an Islamic militant group based in Pakistan. LeT has denied any responsibility for the attacks, but the sole surviving gunmen told interrogators he was trained by LeT, Indian authorities have said.

Pakistani authorities denied the attackers were from their country, instead blaming what they call "non-state" actors.

But one analyst who studies India-Pakistan tensions believes this operation was planned and carried out by militants from Bangladesh, Pakistan -- and India.

"They needed people on the ground who could guide them and provided the inside dope," said Shuja Nawaz, author of "Crossed Swords," which analyzes the role of Pakistan's military in the country's politics. "Otherwise, the Lashkar doesn't have the capacity to have cased the joints, to have made all these plans and get these people into the target area so effectively."

U.S. Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice, who traveled to the region this week to meet with Indian and Pakistani officials, hit hard on the need for Pakistan to root out Islamic extremists inside its borders.

The Pakistani leadership must understand "the importance of doing that, particularly in rooting out terrorists and rounding up whoever perpetrated this attack from wherever it was perpetrated, whatever its sources, wherever the leads go," Rice said.

Meanwhile, Indian police swiftly handled a "security scare" at New Delhi's major airport early Friday amid heightened security at the nations airports. Video Watch what was known about the scare »

Intelligence reports indicated terrorists may be planning an airborne attack.

"This is based on a little warning which has been received," Indian Air Force chief Maj. Fali Homi said. "That's all, nothing else. We are prepared as usual."

Indian officials are also weighing how to tighten security along their coasts, where the Mumbai attackers entered the country.