India Today November 28, 2008
Raising commandos in Hyderabad
By Amarnath K Menon
Is Hyderabad ready to face a Mumbai type attack? The police and security analysts aver that the city is poorly prepared in spite of the bombings at the Mecca Masjid on May 18 and the Lumbini Park and Gokul Chat eatery on August 25 last year. But it is waking up and is to have its own anti–terrorist force.
Among the immediate measures being planned are the raising of a commando force, on the lines of the Greyhounds involved in the anti–Maoist operations.“We need a special commando force to handle such emergency situations like in Mumbai. Currently the city police is not totally fit to handle an armed terror attack with a hostage situation,” admits the Hyderabad police commissioner B. Prasada Rao after reviews at several security – related meetings.
Even as he puts forward his proposal to the state government, the police have suggested that all sensitive institutions including the Nuclear Fuel Complex, which supplies fuel bundles for the country’s atomic power reactors, the string of defence facilities including the Defence Research and Development Laboratory and the Bharat Dynamics Limited that manufacture missiles and the National Remote Sensing Agency, that provides satellite imagery, step up vigil and fortify themselves with tighter security.
In other measures, key scientists and researchers are being provided with additional security, visitors are not to be allowed inside these institutions and those working there, both employees and contract labour, are to be frisked regularly. The Central Industrial Security Force is also being asked to strengthen the security cover at the institutions.
However, what is worrying security analysts is the easy access to high resolution satellite imageries of these institutions. Different frames of several sensitive institutions and installations, including the Nuclear Fuel Complex and the Bharat Dynamics Limited, are posted on globalsecurity.org and this can be devastating “ if it falls into wrong hands or eyes.” The information and analysis available if misused can be catastrophic, according to analyst.
© Copyright 2008, India Today Group
