he police officers, especially the core team, is burning the night oil to make the International Fleet Review (IFR) incident-free, be it in traffic management, law and order, crowd management or eliminate the remote chances of terror attacks.
Considerable planning has gone into it, in the last three months, but what appears to be a bit of worry is the chances of terror attack, especially after the Intelligence Bureau (IB) has issued a country-wide alert notice, post the Pathankot attack reportedly by the Pakistan-based terror group Jaish-e-Mohammed.
“We have made the security plan as water-tight as possible, in terms of strategy, intelligence feedback and deployment of forces. But post 26/11 Mumbai attack and Fidayeen style attacks at Gurdaspur and Pathankot, our thinking has changed, and we want to eliminate even the slimmest chances,” said a senior police officer in the core IFR security team.
The police will be deploying about 15,000 men, excluding the police, to beef-up in the Maoist-dominated Agency areas. About 3,500 men have been exclusively earmarked for the traffic management and the rest have been put into bandobust, security and law and order duties. Already about 10,000 personnel have made their way into the city and the remaining will be come by February 2.
According to a senior police officer, the main IFR event, which will be held on February 7 on the Beach Road, is the most critical event. “First of all it is being held in a highly populated residential area and the security arrangement for it is totally different. It is easy to secure an open ground, but in this case it is a bit difficult. But we are in the processing of securing all corners, including securing the apartments and houses that are on beach road,” said a senior officer. Another senior officer informed The Hindu that apart from the 20,000 odd invitees and over 1,500 VIPS and VVIPS, the IFR events will be watched by over 1.5 lakh general public who will be factored into the beaches. A small rumour can trigger a panic.
To avoid such incidents we are placing our men in mufti amidst the crowd to handle such situations. We also advise people not heed rumours, including messages through SMS or other forms of social media, said ADCP (in-charge IFR Cell) S. Varada Raju.
