Pakistan tightens security after Indian blasts

KARACHI, July 12 (Reuters) Pakistan has beefed up security in its main cities after a series of bomb attacks in neighbouring India, government officials said today.

More than 180 people were killed in seven bomb blasts in Mumbai, India's financial capital, yesterday, hours after suspected Islamist militants killed eight people, including seven tourists, in Srinagar, the main city of Indian Kashmir.

Pakistani officials said there had been no specific threat of attacks but security had been tightened as a precaution.

''There is no specific threat, but anything can happen after the attacks in Mumbai,'' Salahuddin Haider, a spokesman for the provincial Sindh government, told Reuters.

Karachi, capital of Sindh, has suffered a series of attacks by Islamist militants since Pakistan joined the US-led war on terrorism after the September 11 attacks on the United States.

Haider said police had been put on high alert and police patrols had also been increased in the city of 14 million.

In the eastern city of Lahore, extra police had been deployed at bus terminals, railway tracks and the city's airport.

''After the Mumbai attacks, we have increased security at railway stations. Commuters and carriages are being thoroughly checked,'' Zaheer Ahmed, Inspector General of Railways Police, said.

REUTERS SI VC2126