Delhi wakes up to stepped up security, traffic diversions

Delhi wakes up to tightened security arrangements in view of the celebrations to mark the 150th anniversary of the 1857 uprising.

The national capital woke up to tightened security arrangements and traffic diversions on Friday in view of the celebrations in New Delhi to mark the 150th anniversary of the 1857 uprising.

HT Image

Several layers of barricades were seen on roads leading to the historic Red Fort, where President APJ Abdul Kalam, his deputy Bhairon Singh Shekhawat and Prime Minister Manmohan Singh attended the main function on Friday morning.

Hundreds of armed Delhi Police and paramilitary personnel were deployed at and around the venue while elite commandos and snipers maintained a hawk-like vigil on the roof tops in the vicinity of the Red Fort in Old Delhi.

All those entering the venue were frisked and their belongings checked even as several close-circuit television cameras installed at all vantage points kept a watch on the activities of the visitors.

Police had intensified its vigil in the capital as it believes that some Lashker-e-Toiba terrorists could be here to carry out a strike, especially to disrupt the celebrations to mark the first war of independence.

The function and a commemorative march taken out by the volunteers of Nehru Yuva Kendra also led to traffic diversions in the morning, causing hardships to commuters especially those entering the city from east Delhi.

Thousands of youth volunteers from all over the country, who arrived in the Capital on Thursday after completing a 60-km march from Meerut in UP, walked down from their camp in Yamuna Pushta to the Red Fort.