Record number of paramilitary, cops on Mumbai's streets

Police claim to have made all arrangements for the security in the city in view of the Ayodhya-Babri Masjid title suit verdict on Thursday by the Allahabad high court.

Rajnish Seth, joint commissioner of police, law and order, said: “Heavy deployment of police and paramilitary forces has been done across the city so that any untoward incidents could be prevented. About 4,000 suspicious people have been arrested, and under section 149 of the IPC, notices have been served on 1,200.”

Chief secretary JP Dange said 2.5 lakh security personnel from the Rapid Action Force, the Riot Control Police and the State Reserve Police Force have been deployed across the state.

Besides, police officers are closely monitoring the situation in their areas and are prepared to tackle any crisis.

A police officer said: “I have been in the department for the past 20 years, but after the 1993 riots, this is the first time such an extreme pressure has been seen in the force. We are ready, and even officers of lower rank have been given authority to crack the whip.”

Also, informers have been asked to stay alert and inform the police as soon as they spot anything suspicious. According to a senior officer, teams of special forces such as Force One, Quick Response Team and Anti-Terrorism Squad (ATS) have been kept on standby.

All processions and morchas have been banned from Thursday till Sunday, and nobody is allowed to give any speech which could be religiously provocative or hurt the sentiments of people.

On the other hand, the state government has asked army, navy and air force to be prepared on Thursday.

A high-power committee, headed by additional chief secretary Chandra Iyengar, met at Mantralaya on Wednesday to discuss the level of preparedness of the forces. The meeting was attended by director general of police D Shivanandan, police commissioner Sanjeev Dayal, principal secretary of relief and rehabilitation department JS Saharia and officials from Army and Navy.

The state government has cancelled the leave of the officials from the relief and rehabilitation and disaster management departments.

“All the officials at the district administrative headquarters have been asked to report to their offices, and not take leave till Sunday. We expect everything to be normal by Monday,” said Saharia.
An official from the home department said the police had been directed to be extra alert. 

“The police have detained hundreds of people with criminal background and hundreds of other
such people are under the scanner of the police machinery,” he said.

The official said that though no official communique has been issued by the government, the offices are expected to see a low turnout of employees.