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Police taking no chances for Republic Day security

NEW DELHI JAN. 6. The Special Cell of the Delhi police and other intelligence agencies are taking no chances in the preparations for the Republic Day celebrations in the Capital as there are apprehensions that militants may try to derail the ongoing peace process between India and Pakistan.

A high level meeting between the Intelligence Bureau and the Delhi police took place today to assess the situation and chalk-out strategies to deal with such an eventuality. The intelligence agencies said though there were no specific inputs, the Capital was vulnerable to fidayeen attacks and as such security for the Republic Day celebrations would be on an unprecedented scale.

Meanwhile, talking to mediapersons this afternoon, the Joint Commissioner of Police, Special Cell, Neeraj Kumar, praised his men for having succeeded in keeping the city free from terrorist strikes. "Our proactive counter-terror strategy of developing hard technical and human intelligence, followed by swift field operations has given us satisfactory results," he said.

In all, five militants were killed and 17 arrested during the Special Cell operations last year. A Lashkar-e-Taiba terrorist, Arif Mohammad, was killed in an encounter at Najafgarh on May 25, while two Jaish-e-Mohammed militants, Zahoor and Aslam, were gunned down at Millennium Park in South Delhi on October 30. Two more Hizbul militants were eliminated near the main gate of Lotus Temple at Kalkaji on December 7. The Department also busted a espionage ring with the arrest of a former army man, Krishan Kumar, and his accomplice, Suresh.

The Special Cell handled cases of credit card fraud, visa racket and fake currency racket. Over 230 people, including three Bangladeshi, two Pakistani, one Canadian and one West African nationals were arrested for different offences. Mr. Kumar said the Department worked out some other cases related to extortions by notorious gangsters.

Expressing satisfaction over the work shown by his sub-ordinates, Mr. Kumar informed that 19 Special Cell sleuths had been promoted out of turn for their extraordinary performance. "It is for the first time that so many personnel from single unit have been awarded out of turn promotions," he said.

Apart from counter-terrorist operations, the Special Cell has also been entrusted with the task of assessing threat perceptions on both VIPs and common man, including the witnesses in court cases who are threatened by the accused parties. The Department also carry out mock exercises on regular intervals to check the efficacy of VVIP security arrangements on important occasions.

With a view to updating the surveillance and intelligence-interception technology, the Special Cell has inducted the latest gadgets. "With the help of the updated system, we were able to foil a plan of a terrorist strike at India Gate," said Mr. Kumar, adding that the Special Cell personnel were now being imparted specialised training on probe into credit card frauds, counterfeit currency, combat shooting and cyber crime.

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• Police taking no chances for Republic Day security
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