Visitors gape at Red Fort in disbelief

By Our Staff Reporter

NEW DELHI, DEC. 24. Built by Shah Jahan, the Red Fort until last week attracted visitors for its architectural beauty. Today, people gape at it for different reasons. Missing iron bars of the grills along the fort on the Ring Road side and makeshift passages inside the premises, made by the people for their own convenience, speak volumes on the negligence of the authorities.

Today, the majestic Red Fort no longer seems to represent history - the fort once housed the peacock throne; Netaji Subash Chandra Bose's Indian National Army trained here. The smoothness with which the Lashkar-e-Taiba (LeT) suicide squad carried out the strike inside this high-security Army installation on Friday night, leaves visitors astounded. For most of them, the incident in itself is a wonder.

Hundreds of people came to the sprawling Red Fort today, just to satisfy their curiosity on how and where it happened. After all, three citizens - two soldiers and a civilian - were killed in the shootout by the armed intruders. It has hurt the national pride. If it can happen in Red Fort, it can happen anywhere, was the general feeling among the visitors.

While many had to return disappointed because entry inside the Red Fort is still prohibited, the only lucky ones were some schoolchildren from Shimla. On Saturday, the area had been totally sealed.

There was an eerie silence around the fort. Groups of people walked up to the unusually large number of security guards, posted near the barricades outside Lahore Gate and Delhi Gate, with a hope of getting more information. After collecting tid- bits, they would move on to take a closer look at the imposing monument and the let their imagination run wild.

Several theories would then come forward, supported by fictional graphics working on possible ways in which the intruders could have come, struck and then escaped. Each theory was analysed, rejected or accepted and then immediately forgotten.

Families came in cars, drove past the moat and then disappeared into the crowd. Rickshaw-pullers, fruit-juice sellers and pan- masala kiosk owners looked at the structure with disbelief. Nothing of this kind had happened here ever since Independence. A heavy police and Army bandobast is nothing new for them, but it has been unprecedented since yesterday.

The famous weekly Sunday bazar, behind the Red Fort, was also not allowed today as an additional security measure. Instead, there were clear instructions to police personnel that if the sellers squatted on the ground, those in-charge would be suspended. Police patrolled the ground to ensure compliance of the orders.

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