Red alert sounded in Kanpur after specific pointers

LUCKNOW - Amid specific inputs pointing to a possible terrorist strike in Kanpur, the Uttar Pradesh government has sounded a red alert in the city, police said.

Additional Director General of Police (law and order) Brij Lal, who also heads the state Anti-Terrorist Squad (ATS), flew down to Kanpur Sunday afternoon to personally take stock of the situation in the highly populated and congested industrial town.

Lal held a closed-door meeting with local officials in the city and is understood to have charted out a contingency plan to meet any Pune-like situation.

A special ATS team along with a contingent of the Special Task Force (STF) has been stationed in Kanpur to guide local police in case of trouble.

Meanwhile, the administration has sounded a general alert in all sensitive districts, including the state capital, where a few terrorist modules have been busted in the past.

District police chiefs of communally volatile districts have been told to maintain a round-the-clock vigil at public places, particularly railway stations, bus stations, hospitals and cinema halls.

Security was also being beefed up at Ayodhya, Mathura and Varanasi that have been known to be on the radar of various terrorist outfits.

Security has also been stepped up in and around important installations like power houses as also major historical monuments like Taj Mahal.