NEW DELHI, April 23: India’s supreme court on Tuesday ordered the federal government to take charge of security for the Taj Mahal to protect it from any terrorist threat.

A three-member bench directed India’s Central Industrial Security Force to take over protection of the Taj Mahal from the police of Uttar Pradesh state.

The federal government and the government of the northern state were given until the second week of April to present the security proposals to the court.

The court considered the terrorist threat to the 16th-century monument to love when hearing a public interest petition seeking to protect the shrine from air pollution.

Security at the Taj Mahal was tightened in January after Uttar Pradesh government officials said they had received threats via e-mail, allegedly from the Lashkar-i-Taiba, threatening to blow up the monument.

There was a swift denial from Lashkar.

The Taj Mahal was built by the heart-broken Mughal Emperor Shah Jehan in memory of his wife, Mumtaz Mahal.

More than 10,000 artisans toiled for over 20 years to construct the mausoleum, which is visited by hundreds of thousands of tourists each year.—AFP