NEW DELHI, July 1: The Indian government has further upgraded security for missile scientist-turned-President Abdul Kalam, who shows scant regard for his personal safety despite death threats, sources said on Tuesday.

Government sources said Kalam’s motorcade will now include a vehicle armed with electronic jammers to disarm remotely-triggered landmines, frequently used by guerrilla groups in assassinations in India.

Security personnel accompanying the presidential entourage will be also armed with more modern weapons including assault rifles, the Press Trust of India quoted the unnamed sources as saying.

The steps follow intelligence reports suggesting that Kalam faced greater threat from pan-Islamic guerrilla groups such as the Lashker-i-Taiba and Jaish-i-Mohammed, the sources said.

India blames the two groups, also banned by Islamabad, for staging an audacious raid on the national parliament in December 2001. Kalam, the architect of India’s arsenal of nuclear-capable ballistic missiles, is the first Indian president to face death threats from guerrillas fighting Indian rule in Kashmir.

The president, during a June 26-29 tour of Kashmir, refused to acknowledge the personal threats and broke though security cordons on several occasions to meet children, which kept thousands of policemen guarding him in jitters.

Kalam, who started off in life as a newspaper boy, has reportedly told his personal guards not to deny access to fans trying to meet him, a gesture that has endeared him in India, earning him the nickname of “people’s president.”—AFP