Security was beefed to the maximum at all
the courts in the state, heavy police deployment was placed in all state
government offices, defense installations, parking lots, railway stations,
airports, bus terminals and busy marketplaces. Police put barriers at several
roads and checked vehicles entering and exiting.
A meeting of several senior police officials was held in
Mumbai on Wednesday afternoon after which a decision was taken to sound a state
of high alert throughout the state. A team of senior officials of the
Maharashtra Anti-Terrorist Squad (ATS) left for Delhi this afternoon to assist
the National Investigation Agency and the Delhi ATS in the Delhi high court
blast case.
Maharashtra Home Minister R.R. Patil condemned the blast at
the Delhi high court, stating that the blast was an attack on the entire
country and should be fought unitedly.
Speaking to reporters in Mumbai on Wednesday, Patil said
that he had asked all the security agencies in Maharashtra to step up vigil and
appealed to the citizens not to believe in rumors. Patil further said that
Mumbai Police Commissioner Arup Patnaik had visited the Bombay High Court on
Wednesday afternoon to take stock of the measures and said adequate precautions
were being taken.
It appeared that courts trying terror cases were being
targeted, an official source said.
In an unrelated development, dusk to dawn curfew was imposed
in Nandurbar district in Marathwada region on Wednesday, after communal riots
broke out late Tuesday after a Hindu procession was allegedly heavily stoned by
members of a minority community, a phrase used for Muslim community. Police,
which intervened immediately and brought the situation under control on Tuesday
night, had to fire in the air on Wednesday afternoon after an angry mob of
minority community indulged again in heavy stone pelting and hurling empty
bottles at the police and the majority community. Meanwhile, Shafiq
Shamshuddin, a Muslim youth, was allegedly stabbed and killed by members of the
majority community.
A senior police official speaking to Arab News on phone from
Nandurbar said that the situation in the town was tense but under control and
that additional police force was arriving from nearby districts.
