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Sunday, Nov 16, 2008
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Security tightened in West Bengal

Special Correspondent

KOLKATA: West Bengal police has stepped up security measures following a tip-off from the Assam government about the possibility of extremist attacks on trains coming from and passing through Assam.

Confirming this, the Inspector General of Police (Law and Order) Raj Kanojia told The Hindu, that the Assam government had alerted that trains originating from Guwahati to Delhi and elsewhere in the country, might be the target of terrorist attacks.

The police are particularly cautious since Chief Minister Buddhadeb Bhattacharjee is on a two-day tour to the North Bengal town of Malda, where he is slated to inaugurate a university and address a meeting of West Bengal college and university teachers.

Willing to leave nothing to chances after the attempt on Mr. Bhattacharjee’s life on November 2, near Salboni, police on Saturday detained a man who was standing close to the Chief Minister’s convoy at Malda and was seen talking on his mobile phone. Mr. Bhattacharjee travelled by train from here.

Mr. Kanojia said that necessary measures were taken to step up security checks. “They are doing it at their end and we are doing it at ours,” he said.

The General Reserve Police and the Railway Protection Force were asked to carry out their security drills more carefully and combing operations were on at all the major railway stations in North Bengal like New Jalpaiguri, which is the most important transit point for North Bengal and the North Eastern part of the country.

Several important trains including the Delhi-Guwahati Rajdhani pass through this station.

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