Dist administration, police work to ensure peaceful atmosphere

Coimbatore: District collector G S Sameeran, city police commissioner V Balakrishnan and inspector general of police (west zone) R Sudhakar on Saturday convened a peace meeting with various Muslim organizations at the city police commissionerate following the series of petrol bomb attacks that the district witnessed in the past two days as a fallout of the NIA-ED raids on Popular Front of India offices and residences of its functionaries on Thursday.
He said the situation was under control and there was no need to panic. “Based on CCTV footage, stringent action will be taken against the people involved in the petrol bomb attacks on Thursday night and in the early hours of Friday.”
Sameeran said the peace meeting was held with 92 jamat leaders. “We have constituted various committees comprising the general public, representatives of NGOs, village administrative officers and police personnel and they will alert us if any untoward incidents were to occur in the district.” Pointing out that the district hadn’t reported any explosions, he said some people were spreading false messages on social media to create unrest. “Stringent action will be taken against them.”
In the evening, the collector convened a peace meeting with the right wing outfits at the district collectorate and sought their cooperation to maintain communal harmony in the district.
Meanwhile, 1,700 police personnel from Salem, Trichy, Pudukkottai, Karur, Perambalur, Ariyalur, Thanjavur, Madurai, Virudhunagar, Dindigul, Theni, Ramanathapuram, Sivaganga and Tuticorin districts reached the city on Saturday to maintain the law and order situation. The city police commissioner said, “We have deployed 3,500 police personnel in the city. We have intensified vehicle checking and created 28 new points for the same. We will take strict action against the people promoting enmity between two sections of people. They will be detained under the Goondas Act.”