The police have stepped up vigil on land and along the seaboard in the wake of the deadly terror attacks in Sri Lanka on Sunday.
Apart from maintaining close coordination with coastal security agencies, the police have also advised fishermen to report suspicious activity or presence of strangers.
In the hours following the Easter Sunday serial bomb blasts in Colombo, the Puducherry police had mounted anti-sabotage surveillance across churches in the city as a precautionary measure.
“We had tasked our officers to get in touch with pastors as a confidence building measure and ensure smooth conduct of church services on Easter after the tragedy struck Sri Lanka,” said Director General of Police Sundari Nanda.
“We will continue to exercise tight and unrelenting vigil,” the DGP said.
Local presence
Meanwhile, the active presence of the local unit of a Muslim outfit, similar-sounding to the group currently being suspected to be involved in the terror strike in Colombo, has kept the police on their toes.
On Tuesday, Lieutenant Governor Kiran Bedi issued an alert to officers on the WhatsApp group ‘Prosperous Puducherry’ stating that there was “clear intelligence that the group which attacked Sri Lanka could as well be active in Puducherry”.
“All vulnerable places of historic value and of public service, crowded and popular places can be targets of attack”, she cautioned while urging officers to be extra vigilant.
Highly-placed police sources said the outfit had in fact been under close watch for over a year or so but was found to be holding street-corner meetings or religious functions and not indulging in rabid propaganda.
Growing concern
At the same time, however, there was a growing worry over the ‘radicalisation threat’ in the wake of the sudden rise of a couple of outfits in the recent past in coastal Karaikal, which along with neighbouring Nagapattinam, formed an extended and a vulnerable shoreline, the sources also added.
When contacted, Chief Secretary Ashwani Kumar said while there was no specific alert in the wake of the Sri Lanka terror strike, a few weeks ago the administration had received a nation-wide intel input shared by the Centre about the possibility of explosives being smuggled into the country by sea.
“We had shared the input with the police and directed extra vigilance especially given that the city is a popular tourist destination,” he added.
Chief Minister V. Narayanasamy led a candle-light vigil in the city for the terror victims in Sri Lanka.