By M H Ahssan & Swetha Reddy
Even as the country is still to recover from the wounds inflicted on Mumbai in the 60-hour terror marathon, HNN looks at the vulnerable spots in Andhra Pradesh and whether the state has the wherewithal to protect itself from such attacks
Hyderabad: Establishments the city takes pride in have porous security arrangements. Security experts say that in Hyderabad, it is the Cyberabad region which is the more vulnerable one. “If Hyderabad has temples and mosques, Cyberabad has major defence and research laboratories,’’ points out an expert, noting that any damage to these establishments would send reverberations across the country.
The city is home to the Nuclear Fuel complex and also to about half a dozen sophisticated defence research laboratories that are, among other things, into developing strategic missiles. “AGNI, for instance, was developed in Hyderabad,’’ says a security expert. These establishments are manned by the CISF. “But CISF is concentrated within these establishments and there are no preventive measures in place for their exposed exteriors,’’ the expert says. However, after the Mumbai attacks, senior cops said that major defence, R&D establishments, particularly missile, space and nuclear wings, have been provided with stepped up security. Key scientists and missile experts are being provided additional security.
Such measures notwithstanding, senior police officials rue that the city conspicuously lacks a specialised force to tackle Mumbai-like situations. “We have a task force but that is about lathi wielding cops and third degree. But they have no idea of raiding hideouts and neither are they trained in using small arms. The point is urban gorilla warfare requires hardcore training which our cops have not received. They do not know how to tackle such situations say in a mall, a theatre or a hotel causing minimal possible damage,’’ a senior police official points out.
The city is also the centre of three police academies, National Police Academy, Andhra Pradesh Police Academy and the Greyhounds Academy, and resources can be taken from these if need be, but in most cases it would be people who are still undergoing training. “And the training of Greyhounds is for jungle warfare and not urban terrorism,’’ says an official.
If Octopus was meant exclusively for urban terrorism, it is a project that never took off. The operation and rescue team of Octopus, for instance, was supposed to undergo a training for operation and rescue but it has not even started. “Even if they had put six months into training, one batch of trained personnel would have been ready by now,’’ says an official.
Visakhapatnam: Though it has been a fairly safe city so far, certain vulnerable spots in Visakhapatnam concern its denizens. One of them is the fishing harbour which is maintained by the Vizag Port Trust and sees nearly 600 to 800 vessels come and go each day. Experts say that it is very difficult to keep a check on the traffic here because there isn’t enough manpower. “Just two months ago Sri Lankan fishermen had intruded into this area for tuna fishing. Though 30 of them were detained along with four trawlers, it might not be the case always,’’ he says adding that the lack of stringent entry and exit rules can cause trouble anytime.
The other location that is considered as a soft target in Vizag is the 134 km-long Bhimli coastline. With only one lighthouse, this coast again lacks vigilance and it is said that several Bangladeshis walk in and out of the coast rather freely.
Under the coastal security scheme the central government, in 2006, had sanctioned six offices in Vizag, Kalingapatnam, Vakalapudi (near Kakinada), Machilipatnam, Suryalanka (Gutur) and Dugarajapatnam (Nellore). Though operations have started only in Vizag and Kalingapatnam so far, none of these places are wellequipped to handle any crisis situation.
Of the 170 km-long Vizag coast, a good 45 km falls under the jurisdiction of the Vizag police commissionerate, which has no surveillance system in place. Even the marine police station that is expected to watch the coastline and also look into the security of tourists visiting the port city has no manpower or the required machinery. “Ideally every marine police station is supposed to be equipped with three vessels with 12 tonne capacity and one vessel with five tonne capacity. But nothing like that seems to be present at this marine station. Also it has a very small team of just 15 members who are only enough for keeping a watch on the Rishikonda beach,’’ says a senior police official. He further says that there is a lack of coordination between the defence personnel and the local police, which is also a matter of concern and can lead to serious consequences in the future.
Srisailam: Home to the immensely popular Shiva temple and Shaktipeeth, one of the biggest temples in the state and number one in revenue generation in AP after Tirupati, the town does not even have an apology of a security cover. The temple is the highest grosser for the endowments department and the Srisailam dam and two power plants are also located here. But even on heavy rush days it has to make do with a posse of Special Protection Force manning the power plants sans arms. Local cops explain that since these plants fall in the forest area, arms are not allowed. The town has a police station and also AP Special Police Protection.
But, even when huge crowds come to this temple and lakhs on festivals such as Dasara, Diwali, Shivratri, Ugadi no special arrangements are made, though each time there is an incident in the country, the intelligence sends a warning signal to Srisailam of it being on the terror radar. But precious little has changed in this town’s security. “If there is a problem here, it takes a minimum of four to five hours for additional forces to reach here because all the adjoining districts— Kurnool, Guntur, Ongole and Mahbubnagar — are 200 kms from here," says a local cop. “Since there is a big temple, it is a vulnerable town," he adds.
Mantralayam: On the border of AP and Karnataka, and situated on the bank of Tungabhadra river, scores of devotees flood this religious destinations through the year, their numbers peaking on religious days. The Raghavendra Swamy temple here draws large number of devotees including Tamil and Kannada superstars and has in the past received alerts for being on the hit list of terrorists. “But there is not much security here," says a local.
Tirupati: The states most famous religious tourism destination has been demanding for CRPF deployment but thats not because it fears for its safety. The temple officials are tired of local policemen getting VIP darshan appointments to please politicians and other big shots and TTD officials now want a central force to take over to end the menace. On the security front, this wealthy temple town seems to be way superior than other districts. It had installed 55 CCTVs way back in 1996 and is now in the process of upgrading its security network, installing new advanced CCTV that will cost close to Rs 2 lakh. “We are also developing a security zone near Alitiri at the estimated cost of Rs 15 crore," a TTD official says.
In terms of security force deployment, it has 1,200 personnel from the Special Police Force, Armed Reserve Personnel and TTDs own vigilance and private security. But on heavy rush days such as the annual Brahmotsavam and Ugadi or the birthday of Lord Venkateshwara, more than 3,000 personnel are deployed.
TTD spends a neat Rs 20 crore on its “state of the art’’ security arrangement.
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