Punjab on high alert, 7 ADGPs sent to field

Amid rising tension between India and Pakistan because of the revocation of Article 370 in Jammu and Kashmir, Punjab has been put on high alert. Director general of police (DGP) Dinkar Gupta has sent senior officers of the rank of ADGPs to monitor the situation in each range.

This is for the first time in the past two decades that such senior officers from Chandigarh have been sent to the ranges to oversee security aspects as a preventive measure. The ADGPs have also been asked to work closely with the BSF troops posted along the International Border. It is also for the first time that the DGP has asked officers of the rank of DIGs and SSPs to personally oversee night patrolling on national highways. Each DIG and other SSP-level offices has been specifically assigned the stretch of road that they are to patrol till August 15.

Who goes where

According to the DGP’s orders, ADGP (Punjab Armed Police) IPS Sahota will oversee security arrangements in the Amritsar commissionerate, Amritsar rural and Tarn Taran districts; ADGP (security) RN Dhoke will oversee the Ludhiana Commissionerate and the Ludhiana Range. ADGP (welfare) Sanjiv Kalra will be in the Bathinda Range whereas ADGP (traffic) SS Chauhan will oversee arrangements in the Ferozepur Range. Kuldeep Singh, ADGP (IT), will monitor Patiala Range whereas Shashi Prabha Dwivedi will be in the Ropar range.

With police commissioners in Jalandhar and Amritsar on short leaves, the DGP has immediately given charges of these police commissionerates to ADGP Arpit Shukla and IG Jatinder Aulakh, respectively. Previously, when commissioners were on leave, charges used to be given to the IGs of the ranges.

“Punjab not only has border with Pakistan, but we are the first neighbours of Jammu and Kashmir as well. Senior officers would personally monitor law and order, till the situation is normalised; all these are preventive measures,” Gupta told HT, while categorically denying any specific input about any terror attack warning.

Sources, however, said the high alert had been sounded in the state on the advisory of the Union home ministry that has shared some vital intelligence inputs about few ‘Jaish-e-Mohammed’ and ‘Lashkar-e-Taiba’ terrorists who may try to sneak into other states.

First Published: Aug 07, 2019 00:44 IST