India rattled over sex attacks on foreign tourists

Jan 14, 2008, 10:05 GMT

New Delhi - Alarmed over rising sexual offences against foreigners at its tourist spots, the Indian government has decided to enhance security measures for tourists, a newspaper reported Monday.

The Federal Tourism Ministry has summoned senior tourism officials from all states for a meeting in New Delhi on January 24 to discuss the safety and security arrangements for tourists, the English-language Hindustan Times newspaper reported.

Over the past few weeks, several foreign tourists were molested or raped in the states of Goa, Kerala and Maharashtra. While a Finnish woman reported she was raped in Maharashtra last month, a Briton on Saturday alleged she was raped in the beach resort state of Goa.

Top federal tourism official S Bannerjee has written to tourism secretaries of all states regarding such reports and asked them to deploy special police at popular tourist sites, the report said.

At the January 24 meeting, officials will try to identify various measures that can be undertaken to provide better protection to foreign visitors, apart from reviewing the effectiveness of the existing ones.

In a related development, the Goa Chief Minister Digambar Kamat promised that the accused would be arrested soon. 'We are adopting zero tolerance towards such accused. We are dealing seriously with such cases,' Kamat told the PTI news agency.

Several countries, including the US, Britain, Australia, Canada and France, have issued warnings on the law and order situation in India in travel advisories to their citizens planning to visit the South Asian country.

They have specifically warned women tourists about the possibility of physical harassment and molestation in major tourism destinations including Goa and the Taj city of Agra.