Viquar Ahmed may be behind bars but the terror he created among police personnel is clearly visible in the bandobust for the fifth Mecca Masjid blast anniversary. Police have decided to drastically reduce static pickets, which were repeatedly targeted by Viquar, and instead go mobile with armed personnel.
Between 2008 and 2010, Viquar had opened fire on police personnel at three places in the Old City and two of those incidents occurred around Mecca Masjid blast anniversary. A home guard, K Balaswamy, and constable U Ramesh, who were part of the unarmed static police pickets in Falaknuma and Shah Ali Banda for the blast anniversary bandobust in 2009 and 2010, were shot dead by Viquar.
Though police succeeded in arresting Viquar in July 2010 and the last anniversary passed off without any untoward incidents, they are not willing to take any chances given the recent communal incidents in the city. As a result, massive bandobust arrangements have been put in place for the blast anniversary.
In addition to the 6,500-strong Hyderabad police force, 90 platoons of AP Special Police (APSP), City Armed Reserve (CAR) and four companies of Rapid Action Force (RAF) would be deployed in the Old City. To prevent any kind of trouble from criminal elements, Task Force sleuths have picked up over 110 communal and history-sheeters and they would remain in police custody till Saturday morning.
In view of previous incidents, police have decided to reduce the number of static police pickets this year and post armed personnel in the existing ones. “The static pickets in communally-sensitive areas will have at least five members and they will be armed. Vehicle checking will be done throughout the city and elaborate bandobust arrangements are in place to ensure that the day passes off peacefully,” Hyderabad in-charge police commissioner Anurag Sharma told TOI.
As a part of the precautionary measures, police have ordered liquor shops in the entire Old City to down their shutters on Friday. Through peace committees and community elders, police have been sending messages to people to pray at their local places of worship instead of gathering in huge numbers at big mosques. Senior police officers would be monitoring the bandobust at all major mosques in the Old City. Special emphasis has been put on places of worship in Saidabad, where communal clashes occurred recently.
“This time we are focusing on mobile patrolling. All mobile teams will have an armed component. We have also rounded up 10 communal-sheeters as a preventive measure,” deputy commissioner of police (DCP), East Zone, Y Gangadhar said.
Meanwhile, Majlis Bachao Tehreek (MBT) has decided to stage a dharna at Dharna Chowk near Indira Park to protest against the slow pace of probe by the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) in the blast case.
—-Source: TOI