Terror threat to Badminton World Cup

Hyderabad, Aug 7 (ANI): The World Badminton Championships scheduled to be held here from Monday has been enveloped in a security blanket, following the Intelligence Bureau's (IB) alert on possible terror strike.

Top seeded badminton players are scheduled partake in the World Cup tournament that will be held at G.M.C.Balayogi Stadium from August 10 to 16.

Over 200 players from all over the world and their support staff have already arrived in Hyderabad.

Sources said the Andhra Pradesh Police received inputs from the IB that the championship is under threat from dreaded militant outfit Lashkar-e-Taiba

The IB informed the to the state police that terror elements would attempt to strike at international players as they did against Sri Lankan cricketers in Pakistan recently.

Sleuths of the IB visited the stadium as well as the badminton academy being run by player-turned-coach Pullela Gopichand at Gachchibowli on Saturday to take stock of the situation.

Spokesperson of the Andhra Pradesh Police A.K.Khan said the police was considering the matter.

Security around the venue has been beefed up by deploying special teams with metal detectors and sniffer dogs at various points. Round the clock armed escort has been provided to all the players participating in the tournament, sources said.

The IB officials grilled the organizing committee members for nearly three hours on Friday, and asked about any threat calls they received. They were asked to give all the details of their phone call for last few days. (ANI)