The Home Ministry asked states and UTs, particularly Maharashtra and Delhi, to deploy additional forces in markets, religious and other public places as militants might try to strike.
The Centre has also asked authorities to install a sizeable number of CCTV cameras, metal detectors and other electronics gadgets in crowded places to monitor movement of people and for a thorough check up of people. Special instruction has also been given to beef up security along the country's coastline as the 26/11 attackers had come to Mumbai taking the sea route.
The Home Ministry is not taking any chances in view of the ongoing international film festival in Goa and beginning of the tourist season. Thousands of tourists - both domestic and foreign - throng popular tourist centres like Goa, Kerala, Himachal Pradesh and Jammu and Kashmir during this time of the year.
Last fortnight, a Western intelligence agency had informed New Delhi that Pakistan-based terror outfit Lashkar-e-Taiba may launch spectacular strikes in crowded places in Mumbai, similar to the one carried out two years ago. Another intelligence input had suggested that Kashmiri terror outfits may strike in three markets, including popular underground market Palika Bazar, in Delhi.