Moscow: Indian security services helped the Soviet intelligence agency KGB in foiling an attempt by Afghan terror groups to assassinate President Mikhail Gorbachev during his 1987 visit to New Delhi, a security official of the erstwhile Soviet state has said.
"We had concrete information about a terror group sent into India across the Pakistani border with the aim to scuttle the visit of the Soviet leader," said Major General (retd.) Viktor Aleinikov, Chief of KGB’s bodyguards department, in an interview to the Russian daily Moskovsky Komsomolets.
The security situation in India was “complex” because there were about one million Afghan refugees in the country, Aleinikov said. "After crossing into India from Pakistan the terror group was to reach Delhi and the IX Main Department (bodyguards department of KGB) approached the anti-terrorist 'Alfa' unit for help," Aleinikov said, adding that ten marksmen of KGB's ‘Alfa’ unit were sent to India to assist Gorbachev's bodyguards.
"We informed the Indian special services about our plans to deploy marksmen at select spots with special equipment along the road linking Palam airport and Rashtrapati Bhavan and other places to be visited by Gorbachev.”
"As a result we achieved the task of providing security cover of the visit and Afghan terrorists were detained by our Indian colleagues," said Aleinikov.
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