State on high alert following HNLC call for 36-hour bandh
By Our Reporter
SHILLONG: Taking strong note of the 36-hour bandh called by the HNLC to boycott the Assembly polls in the State, the Government has beefed up security to ensure peaceful elections.
Addressing a press conference here on Thursday following a meeting with political parties, officiating Chief Secretary, Barkos Warjri said that altogether 91 companies of Central Paramilitary Forces have been deployed in the State to maintain law and order and 44 companies were deployed in the militant-hit Garo Hills region.
Out of the 2485 polling booths in the State, only 1213 were identified as ‘normal’ and of the 900 polling stations declared as ‘sensitive’, 355 are ‘hyper sensitive’ due to prevalent militant activities. Another 545 are hyper sensitive polling stations due to other reasons.
While dwelling on the security arrangements made for the polling day, Warjri said the Government will have one section of central armed police force stationed in all the polling stations which are affected by militancy while only half section of the central forces will be placed in polling stations which do not face the same threat.
According to Warjri, mobile squads and strike forces will also be deployed in all the polling stations in the different districts during the polling day.
“While the strike force will be ready to quickly react in case of incidents within their assigned areas of operation, the mobile squads will move to see that things are under control on the polling day,” he told reporters.
The State Government also appealed to the public to come out and vote while assuring that every step is being taken to ensure a peaceful election.
In addition to deployment of central armed forces, the Border Security Force (BSF) has also been asked to be in maximum ‘alert’ along the Indo-Bangla border.
“BSF have put all the BOPs along the Indo-Bangladesh border on maximum-alert and they have also requested their counterpart in Bangladesh to step up vigilance in order to ensure zero infiltration into Meghalaya from across the border,” Director General of Police (DGP) Prem Singh said.
The BSF is also ensuring that all officers are stationed in their BOPs, rather than sitting in the headquarters in Shillong and Tura, to discharge their duties more effectively.
The proscribed militant outfit, HNLC, has for the first time called a bandh during elections in the State. Earlier, MPCC president DD Lapang had appealed to the outfit to call off the bandh in the interest of the people.