TAKING NO CHANCES: A sniffer dog doing duty at the Bangalore City Railway Station on Monday. — Photo: K. Gopinathan

BANGALORE: In view of the Central intelligence agencies alerting the State of possible terrorist attacks, the police have heightened the security in the city for Independence Day celebrations on Tuedsay.

The police said that apart from the alert sounded by the Central agencies, the terrorist attack on the Indian Institute of Science, the serial blasts in trains in Mumbai and the naxalite activities in the State have forced them to be extra cautious.

To instil confidence among the people and deter anti-social elements, the police on Monday staged a flag march from Anil Kumble Circle on Mahatma Gandhi Road to the Opera House junction on Brigade Road.

Nearly 850 policemen, including five Deputy Commissioners of Police and 12 Assistant Commissioners of Police, will be posted around Field Marshall Manekshaw Parade Ground, where the Chief Minister will receive the salute at the Independence Day parade.

Personnel from Border Security Force, Central Reserve Police Force, Central Industrial Security Force and Karnataka State Reserve Police will be deployed around the parade grounds.

For the first time, closed circuit television cameras have been installed around the parade grounds, which has been made into a sterile zone. "Sky sentries" have been posted atop the high-rise buildings in the area.

The police have banned processions, demonstrations and public meetings within 1-km radius of the parade ground from the midnight of Monday to Tuesday afternoon.

They have banned the invitees as well as the public from carrying mobile phones, cameras, radios, glass bottles, bags and umbrellas to the parade ground. People entering the parade ground will have to pass through doorframe metal detectors, the police said.

An alert has been sounded in the city, and security has been upgraded at Vidhana Soudha, Vikasa Soudha, High Court, Raj Bhavan, other vital installations, prominent places of worship, Defence establishments, airport, railway stations and bus stations. The police have been checking hotels, lodges and service apartments and have been screening vehicles. The police have appealed to the public to call the police control room (100) if they notice any suspicious person or object.

Security in trains

People travelling by long distance trains can feel more secure against the background of security threats.

South Western Railway authorities said that in view of the alert, the Railway Protection Force had strengthened security at Bangalore City, Cantonment, Yeswanthpur and other railway stations.

The police personnel were checking and frisking passengers and their luggage at these stations. Metal detectors and CCTV were used to check passengers and their belongings and to spot any suspicious movement of persons on platforms and other places in the stations, they added.

All the rakes of trains leaving the stations are being brought in a locked condition to the platforms and opened in the presence of RPF or reserve police personnel. Sniffer dogs are deployed to check the coaches and all baggage. Armed police have been posted on all important trains.

The Railway Special Force has been deployed at entry and exit points of each with metal detectors.

Special force personnel are patrolling the platforms, waiting rooms, reservation offices and other premises. All parcels at platforms, goods sheds and parcel office and cloakrooms are being checked at random.

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