According to revelations by Sarfaraz Nawaz, an arrested Lashker-e-Taiba (LeT) operative, the Pakistan-based militant group intends targeting senior scientists and engineers of the Indian Space Research Organization (ISRO), planning to either kidnap or assassinate them. The revelations from Nawaz came during his interrogation by the Karnataka police about the Bangalore blasts of July 25, 2008.

In addition, with another intelligence input - interception of a conversation between two LeT militants over satellite phone - pointing the intentions of the LeT, the security around scientific installations has been enhanced, with the Union Home Ministry urging ISRO scientists to be watchful in their movement.

Specifying the names of the ISRO scientists to be targeted, Nawaz revealed a Pakistani terrorist, Jasim's reference to the ISRO head G Madhavan Nair, Alex, Sajivnath, Suresh Kumar, and a Muslim woman scientist from UP working on the Agni missile project.

As per police officials, in his statement, Nawaz - who was brought to Bangalore recently from Muscat for the Bangalore blasts probe - elaborated how the terrorists in Kerala carried out operations, based on instructions they received from leaders in Pakistan and Gulf.

The police said: "Things like how to carry out terror activities in India came up during discussions. This included attacks on top scientists. Nawaz told us that these things were at a discussion level during meetings in Muscat."