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High alert in Calcutta during Puja

Arup Chanda in Calcutta

Inter-Services Intelligence (ISI), the Pakistani espionage outfit, might attempt to trigger a series of bomb blasts in Calcutta through some Indian terrorists during the Durga Puja festival which begins tomorrow. This has been conveyed in a top-secret Union Home Ministry report to the West Bengal government.

According to a Calcutta Police Special Branch officer, all the 35 police stations in the city have been put on a "red alert" and special squads have been formed to tackle the threat. All police stations under West Bengal police have also been alerted in view of the recent spurt in ISI activities in the state.

The report stated that a team of terrorists trained in subversive activities at ISI camps in Pakistan might attempt to enter India through Nepal and reach here just before the Puja. Their aim would be to organise explosions at prominent places in the city and at popular Puja pandals.

The report also stated that such teams might attempt to carry out subversive activities in other parts of the country.

Intelligence agencies suspect that the terrorists might use the eastern coast for bringing in RDX explosives, and have as such alerted the concerned states.

The Calcutta Police will deploy 2,500 policemen at prominent Puja pandals.

The Special Branch officer said that more plain-clothes policemen would be deployed to keep watch on cars and two-wheelers parked near Puja pandals.

The Calcutta Police has also alerted all the Puja committees and instructed them to post special volunteers who would keep a watch on people entering Puja pandals or parking their vehicles near crowded places.

The police has also issued bulletins through the audio-visual media asking people to immediately report if any person offered exceptionally high rent and looked suspicious.

Though the intelligence report mentioned infiltration through Nepal, the intelligence agencies are also keeping a close watch on the Bangladesh border particularly after recent ISI operations in West Bengal which were allegedly monitored from Bangladesh.

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