E-Paper
Cops ill-prepared to counter terror attack
THE IMPORTANCE of the City of Allahabad is known to everybody as it is not only one of the prime religious places, but also has many significant institutions and offices.
THE IMPORTANCE of the City of Allahabad is known to everybody as it is not only one of the prime religious places, but also has many significant institutions and offices.
But, keeping in view the level of alacrity of the police even after Mumbai’s serial blasts, nobody can deny that the city of Sangam is vulnerable.
Like earlier occasions, all they (the police) did was to have a peep into places like bus stations, railway stations, select hotels and checking of vehicles.
Surprisingly, the police alertness was experienced only for one night and later they were back to square one.
The police bosses instructed their subordinates to remain vigilant in their respective areas but except for checking of vehicles, which too turns a harassment very often, nothing happened.
Similar attitude was adopted by the police even after the Varanasi blasts a couple of months ago.
The police were seen alert and active only for 24 hours and after that they seemed to have forgotten about the incident.
A metal detector placed at the entrance of the Hanumat Niketan temple has become a play thing for small children.
People of this sensitive town may still be talking about the Mumbai blasts and expressing strong resentment against the menace of terrorism but the cops appear to have forgotten Mumbai’s blasts of July 11, which claimed about 200 lives and left hundreds of others injured.
All this despite the fact that terror links with city were proven way back in 2001 when the Phulpur police nabbed three brothers Wali Ullah, Wasi Ullah and Ubaid Ullah.
On interrogation, they had revealed that they had harboured some terrorists and had kept their weapons for some time.
Soon after, Lucknow STF had gunned down three terrorists, who had stayed at the house of the three brothers.
Sources said that the three of the slain terrorists had even made rounds of Ayodhya.
It may be mentioned that it was the achievement of the STF and intelligence agencies had failed to gather any information about the terrorists.
And, the situation after five years too is not very different, said a police officer on the condition of anonymity.
The officer said even if any nefarious activity was going on in the city, it was going unnoticed.
“As a matter of fact, men in uniform totally depend on the intelligence sleuths as the police have no such network.
The LIU functions under the command of the SSP but there is no evidence to prove that LIU personnel ever do anything commendable,” he remarked.
“As far as the police are concerned they have neither any plan of action nor the weaponry to deal with any such attack. Army will have to be called in for help in case of any terror attack,” he felt.
