The Hyderabad police has been put on high alert following intelligence reports that ISI-backed organisations and the outlawed CPI-Maoist outfit could be attempting to foment trouble in the city during the Ganesh festival commencing on September 7.
Home Minister K Jana Reddy told newsmen on Saturday that 25,000 policemen would be deployed on security bandobust for the Ganesh immersion procession slated on September 17. Chief Minister Dr Y S Rajasekhar Reddy held a high-level review meeting with officials and city MLAs to discuss these arrangements.
Jana Reddy said the city police was put on alert and it was keeping a close watch on the situation.
"The Intelligence is keeping a close eye on the situation. Such information could be sheer rumour or it could be credible. But the police are not willing to take any chances. This alert will continue till the end of the 11-day Ganesh festival," he remarked. He refused to elaborate on whether the threat was specifically from the Maoists or the ISI.
"Anybody may try to exploit the situation. Irrespective of who wants to create trouble, the government is ready to face the situation. The matter is sensitive and of strategic significance, I would not like to say more on the subject," he added.
Hyderabad City Police Commissioner V Dinesh Reddy recently wrote to Director General of Police Swaranjit Sen, expressing apprehensions of trouble from organisations such as Jaish-e-Mohammed and Lashkar-e-Toiba and the CPI-Maoist during the Ganesh festival.
He had sought six companies of Central Reserve Police Force, four companies of Rapid Action Force and five companies of Railway Protection Force for security duties during the festival.
The Home Minister said that besides 10,000 personnel of Hyderabad City Police, another 13,000 policemen would be mobilised from the districts as also other agencies for maintaining law and order in the city.
The neighbouring Cyberabad police would get 2,500 additional personnel, apart from its 700 men, for bandobust in the adjoining areas of the city.
"Anybody who tries to create communal trouble in the city will be dealt with very sternly. We want Hyderabad to remain a symbol of communal harmony and peace," the commissioner said.