The Hindu : National : Security tightened ahead of ULFA `raising day'

Online edition of India's National Newspaper
Wednesday, Apr 06, 2005

National

National

Security tightened ahead of ULFA `raising day'

By Our Special Correspondent

KOLKATA, APRIL 5. Special steps are being taken to protect railway installations in north Bengal and Assam and passenger trains passing through the region in view of "a state of high alert" declared by the North-East Frontier Railway [NFR] in view of the "Raising Day" of the United Liberation Front of Asom on Thursday.

The ULFA and the Kamtapur Liberation Organisation, a militant outfit based in north Bengal, have a record of planning joint operations, according to local intelligence.

The Army and Central paramilitary forces are assisting the NFR's security agencies in areas identified as most vulnerable to militant activity on either side of the West Bengal-Assam border even though there already exist permanent security pickets at certain locations, NFR sources told The Hindu today.

The Army is "sanitising areas outside the railway's immediate jurisdiction" from where militants could target installations from distant vantage points, the sources added.

`Security specials'

All passenger trains moving in and out of north Bengal and Assam are being preceded by "security specials" or single locomotives carrying security personnel during this period. Arrangements were also being made to intersperse passenger train traffic with the running of goods trains as often as possible so that the railway tracks were not kept free for too long, the NFR Chief Public Relations Officer, Trikalagya Rabha, said from Maligaon, Assam. Security personnel will also be aboard some of these goods trains.

The Army as well as the Central Reserve Police Force have been provided with trolleys normally used by Railway gangmen to inspect the tracks. Sniffer dogs are being used in the vigil along certain stretches, as well as in spots close to the piers of railway bridges specially lit up for security reasons.

Printer friendly page
Send this article to Friends by E-Mail

National