After media reported threat to 17th-century monument Taj Mahal from terror outfit ISIS, CISF personnel were asked to beef up the security.

"A link has been circulated in which it is claimed that Taj Mahal is on the target of ISIS. We are probing it. However, security has been enhanced in and around the monument," Additional Director General, Law and Order, Daljeet Singh Chowdhury said.

The security was beefed up after a website revealed graphics of the Taj Mahal with a terrorist being alongside carrying what looked like a weapon. According to reports, a pro-ISIS media group had released a graphic representing Taj Mahal, which is one of the seven wonders of the world, as a likely target of the terror outfit.

The graphic was published after a week when security agencies carried out escape operation in Uttar Pradesh in which one culprit Saifullah was killed and six others were held. It was stated that Saifullah was taught by ISIS through the online medium and was asked to attack a train in Bhopal.

The graphic also shows an ISIS fighter donning combat fatigues and black headgear armed with an attack rifle standing near the Taj Mahal. It also showed three inset images of which one was of Taj Mahal within crosshairs with the words "New Target" below it, a van which had Arabic text on it "Agra istishhadi" (Agra martyrdom-seeker) written in English, indicating the threat of a suicide bombing, and an image of a "bomb".

The inner security of Taj Mahal, the biggest form for foreign and domestic tourists, is given by the Central Industrial Security Force, a central para-military force consigned with the task of preserving industrial units, airports, metro rail and various other sensitive places.

The Uttar Pradesh Police and Provincial Armed Constabulary (PAC) man the outer boundary. Outside the 500-metre security ring, police teams will keep a strict watch on the movement of all the vehicles both on the western gate parking and the Shilpgram parking slot moving towards the eastern gate. Last month CISF personnel were shocked when a youth from Tamil Nadu tried to climb the walls of the heritage monument.

The 31-year-old man from Tamil Nadu was held and later handed over to local police. In April last year, three youths from Delhi had again tried to climb the wall of Taj Mahal in a drunken state. They were caught by CISF personnel and given to local police.

Georgia scientist work on Taj Mahal's color

BY M. DIVYA SRI