Navratri: Terror threat looms, Ahmedabad cops stay awake

Navratri is here and so the threat of a terror attack is looming large over the city. Police officials are having sleepless nights fearing an attack on the city. Among several measures taken to guard Ahmedabad and its revellers during these nine days of festivity, the duty hours of the traffic police have also been extended from 9pm to 1pm.

The traffic cops are also equipped with five breath analysers at different spots in the city. Deputy Commissioner of police, traffic department, Nilesh Jhajhadia while talking to DNA said, "Cops equipped with breadth analysers are stationed strategically at various sensitive locations of the city. One among these is SG Highway, near Vastrapur Lake."

The duty hours of the cops who usually are relieved by 9pm, are extended till 1am because of the Navratri festivities that go on till late night. "The cops on duty have been told to remain at their specified duty spots till the traffic in the area is not relieved," Jhajhadia said. He added that the garba gets over by 12 midnight and the cops have been told to remain at the respective spots till 1am.

The owner of the garba venues are provided with police control room (PCR) vans. Commissioner of police, Ahmedabad city, Sudhir Sinha said PCR vans have been deployed at 28 different major garba venues in the city. "Each PCR van has five cops in it and all have been deployed at garba venues in Ahmedabad," he said.

Apart from that, the garba venue at the GMDC ground organised by the Gujarat government, too has been fortified by the city cops. The ground is equipped with 25 CCTV cameras, 12 watch towers, 3 IPS and SRP officers. "Entire location is fortified by the police bandobast and the traffic cops to manage to traffic in the area," deputy commissioner of police, Zone 1, Sandip Singh told DNA. The cops however, will keep a tab on the garba venues so that they can shut down the venues by midnight.