ASSEMBLY POLL '98
COMMENTARY
SPECIALS
INTERVIEWS
CAPITAL BUZZ
REDIFF POLL
DEAR REDIFF
THE STATES
YEH HAI INDIA!
ELECTIONS '98
ARCHIVES

UP police on alert despite Thackeray backing off

Sharat Pradhan in Lucknow

Despite the decision of Shiv Sena chief Bal Thackeray to call of his planned violent protest over Pakistan playing cricket with India, the Uttar Pradesh police is not taking any chances. Particularly not after Sena activists yesterday went on the rampage on the Muzaffarnagar cricket field, where a match is scheduled between the women's team of the two countries on February 2.

The state administration has sounded an alert to its respective police units, UP principal home secretary Naresh Dayal said today.

Muzaffarnagar, which lies about 150 km from New Delhi in Western UP, is the venue for the triangular women's cricket series to be played between India, Pakistan and Sri Lanka. Four one-day matches are to be played in UP, in Lucknow, Agra, Muzaffarnagar and Barielly. Dayal said, "The matches will be played and we will not permit any kind of vandalism at any cost."

The first match in the series is scheduled on January 27 in Lucknow, where special security arrangements have been made to maintain a round-the-clock vigil. Besides a contingent of cops stationed inside the K D Singh Babu Stadium, a special police patrol has been kept in readiness to meet any eventually outside as well, a senior police official said.

The Lucknow police have arrested three persons for digging up the cricket pitch in Muzaffarnagar and later thwarted a bid by Sena activists to burn an effigy of Pakistan Prime Minister Nawaz Sharief.

Tell us what you think of this report