Hyderabad, August 31: The city police are maintaining a high-level vigil for smooth conduct of immersion of Ganesh idols in Hussainsagar on Thursday following alerts from the Intelligence agencies about possible terror strikes.
Vehicle checking at all entry and exit points and crowded places, including railway and bus stations, lodges, and restaurants were being conducted randomly for the last few days. Policemen in mufti were deployed at the bus and railway stations to keep a constant watch on strangers’ movement.
“We are mainly focusing on vehicle checking on the main intersections along with baggage checking at the crowded places. We are also detaining persons moving suspiciously and releasing them later after enquiring their antecedents,” said DCP (Task Force) V.B. Kamalasan Reddy.
The colourful immersion of Ganesh idols will mark the culmination of 11-day festival. Over 13,000 idols of Lord Ganesha will be immersed in Hussainsagar and tanks surrounding the city following mammoth processions. The police are deploying more than 26,000 policemen for immersion procession starting from Balapur on the suburbs.
The City Security Wing (CSW) is already combing the entire city with hand-held metal detectors, deep search mine detectors, vehicle inspection mirrors; explosives vapour detector and sniffer dogs.
Forty-five bomb disposal squads along with an access control team were deployed at the Khairatabad Ganesh pandal. Police have also imposed traffic restrictions to avoid chaos all along the procession route.
–Agencies–