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| Winter capital city turns into a fortress | | | Early Times Report
Jammu, Jan 25: The night before Republic Day is crucial. While the winter capital city turned into a virtual fortress with police putting a multi-tier security cordon around it, plugging all its entry points; the borders were sealed to stop Pakistan from infiltrating militants. Apart from blocking entry points to the city and making M A Stadium out of bounds for people to keep the "saboteurs" of peace away, police laid surprise check points on the outer Narwal road, Narwal-Nagrota stretch of the Bypass Road, Circular Road and lower and upper Akhnoor roads. A senior police officer said police and security agencies in Jammu were on tenterhooks following "concrete intelligence inputs" that militants could choose the city for a "big strike". Sources said to ensure incident-free conduct of Republic Day, police had put a multi-tier security cordon around the winter capital city. No vehicle was being allowed to enter the city unchecked.
Surprise cordons and checks were also organised on the Nikki Tawi river bed, which adjoins the M A Stadium, and in all the border villages and on the known infiltration routes from Paharpur in Kathua to Poonch, the sources added.
Army jawans had taken positions on the Manda hills, overlooking the Hari Singh Palace-Nagrota stretch of the National Highway and the lower Radio Station-Nagrota road stretch.In the city, cops had taken positions on the Police Control Room Building and other high buildings to keep an eye on the subversive elements.Sources said the intelligence inputs talked of a two-pronged militant attack -- a fidayeen strike and grenade attacks. Dozens of check points were set up and cordon and search operations initiated by police to prevent such attacks, the sources added. As cops fanned out on the city roads and in the streets in the evening frisking suspects, shopkeepers downed their shutters early and left for homes. On the roads, a very thin vehicular traffic was seen as people drove homes to avoid any untoward incident. Hotels and restaurants were also closed early in view of no rush of customers. Tomorrow, it would be an undeclared curfew here as business establishments would remain closed till afternoon when the Republic Day function would come to an end. The security was also further strengthened around the famous Raghunath Temple, Ranbireshwar Temple and some other religious places, besides vital police and army installations. Sources said it would be an untiring vigil for police and security forces tonight with senior police officers monitoring the situation to thwart any terror attack. All the garbage dumps in the city and on the peripheral areas were also removed as a standard measure of security so that militants did not hide explosives in them. Few years back, a bomb had exploded on Republic Day in a garbage dump outside the National Conference office here on the Residency Road. On the International Border and the Line of Control (LoC), border troops were maintaining round-the-clock vigil to foil any infiltration bid.
Having already made more than 16 bids this month, sources said the Pak-based militants would make every possible effort to sneak into the Indian territory tonight to disrupt the Republic Day celebrations. Apart from patrolling along the borders, the troops had laid multiple ambushes in the border villages. The border residents had also been asked to remain vigilant and contact police or security forces if they happened to spot an outsider in their area. Sources said all passenger bus services from major towns to remote villages in the districts of Doda, Kishtwar, Udhampur, Reasi, Ramban, Poonch and Rajouri were cancelled this evening as security agencies apprehended "massacres" by militants. These services would remain suspended till tomorrow afternoon, the sources added. Sources said all the district SSPs had been directed to personally monitor nakas and ambush parties tonight.
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