Independence Day: Noida police steps up vigil at public places, might deploy drones for surveillance

The police in Gautam Buddh Nagar have stepped up security checks across the city ahead of the Independence Day, with public places such as metro stations and shopping malls being priority areas, officials said on Monday.

Police are maintaining high alertness following intelligence input from the Delhi Police about the suspected presence of some terrorists plotting attacks in the national capital on August 15, they said.

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The police are usually on high alert around August 15 and January 26 every year and extra caution is maintained in and around the capital city, Delhi, Superintendent of Police, Noida City, Arun Kumar Singh said .

Some forces envious of India’s progress try to cause some mischief on such special days, therefore, the security measures have been stepped up, the officer said.

“Some alerts were issued from Delhi and keeping that in view, we have stepped up security checks and monitoring here,” he told reporters.

He said if required, police can deploy drone cameras for monitoring the situation in the city.

Singh said places, which are visited by the general public in large numbers, such as metro stations, bus stands, shopping malls, multiplexes are priority, while equal attention is toward other vital installations.

“Places where public turns out in huge numbers are soft targets. Any attack there causes more loss to life and property and makes bigger news.

“All places like shopping malls, metro stations, and all vital installations such as Taksaal (a unit of the Government of India Mint), NTPC (National Thermal Power Corporation) offices, Gas Authority of India Limited (GAIL) -- both under the state government and central government—are being continuously monitored,” he said.

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Singh added that anti-sabotage teams and bomb disposal squads have been deployed for security checks at all vital installations.

He said, beginning today till the Independence Day, all police units will be on extra alert from Noida city to Greater Noida, including all rural areas which have the vital installations.

The civil police and the local investigation unit (LIU) have also stepped up vigilance, he said, adding that police are already on alert due to the ongoing ‘kanwar yatra’, an annual pilgrimage of devotees of Lord Shiva during the auspicious Hindu month ‘Shraavana’.

The officer said the police are also trying to seal borders of the district to ensure no suspicious people enter the district or infiltrate into the national capital from Noida.

“Once the ‘kanwar yatra’ is over, we will step up monitoring the in and out movement of people by sealing Noida borders,” he said.

Police and other security agencies are alert in the wake of intelligence inputs that militants of Lashkar-e-Taiba (LeT), Jaish-e-Mohammed (JeM) and Hizbul Mujahideen plan to carry out terror strikes in Jammu and New Delhi on the occasion of Independence Day.

The Delhi Police has also sent a team to interrogate a militant who was arrested with eight grenades in Jammu late last night.