As an atmosphere of fear and uncertainty has enveloped the entire country ever since the deadly terror attacks in Mumbai, the Andhra Pradesh police has decided to go all out to gear up to face any terror threat.
Even as the state government is planning to raise an elite commando force "State Security Guards" on the lines of National Security Guard, steps were being taken to turn the Hyderabad and neighboring Cyberbabad commissionerate in to a fortress.
In view of the repeated warnings from the intelligence that the IT hub of Hitec City was on the hitlist of terrorists, the government has already moved a unit of the Greyhound commando force to the city. The government has decided to raise another elite commando force "City Guards" to deal with any emergency situation including terror attack on Hyderabad.
The Hyderabad city police commissioner Prasad Rao told the media on Tuesday that the City Guard Force will have personnel who will be trained by the NSG experts. "The force will be equipped with the state of art gadgets, communication equipments and automatic weapons to face any threat from the terrorists", he said.
Taking quick action, the government was going to issue a notification to recruit personell for this force. Apart from the state security guards, the state government is also planning to have the district level units of the state security guards based in each of the 23 district headquarters and other important places such as temple city of Tirupati and commercial capital Vijaywada.
The central and state intelligence agencies have been warning that Tirumala temple, the richest and biggest temple in south India was very much on the radar of the terrorists to create large scale communal tension and the government has taken steps from time to time to put a fool proof security in place in and around Tirumala.
Special attention was being paid on the security of MNCs and IT and software companies as they employ hundreds of foreigners including American and Israelis. Even some Israeli companies have also opened their offices in the city. The police officials were also of the view that the opening of the new US consulate in the Hyderabad has made it an attractive target for the international terror groups such as Al-Qaeda.
"If need be we will further increase the number of check posts. Earlier the check posts were set up to check the movement of thieves and other criminals during the nights. But now they will be upgraded to face even terrorists", the commissioner said.
By placing such check posts and barricades, police wants to make it impossible for any body to enter the city or leave it without going through checking. At shortest possible notice, all the exit points of the city will be closed down. The police have also made an appeal to cooperate with the police in the larger interest of the city and the citizen.