India remains under pressure from terror groups who need to score victories in a vulnerable part of the world, and next year’s Commonwealth Games and the cricket World Cup a year later need to be given top priority by security agencies as they appear to be most threatened, says Michael Chertoff, the US Secretary for Homeland Security under the Bush administration who was in office during 26/11.

Chertoff, the second secretary of the department which was created after 9/11 and co-author of the controversial Patriot Act, was in Mumbai for a security conference held to mark the first anniversary of the November 26 attack by Lashkar-e-Toiba terrorists. He said it was very well that India was focusing strongly on securing its financial capital and while that is important, it is “not the only thing because the enemy is also going to look at other things”, he told The Indian Express.

“You are never done with these preparations because the enemy keeps changing the plan and the enemy’s watching you. So you can never have the mentality, that ok, we did these things now and its finished and we can stop. We have to constantly be evolving,” said Chertoff, whose department closely co-ordinated with India in the aftermath of 26/11 and who now heads a security and risk management consulting firm called the Chertoff Group.

“You have some events coming up, you have the Commonwealth Games and the World Cup of cricket. These are always wonderful events but I can tell you that having been involved in securing major events in the United States over the last 8-10 years, they are very very challenging,” said Chertoff, 55.

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