A terror alert sounded by intelligence agencies about Guwahati being on the hit list of fundamentalist organizations is keeping security agencies on their toes.
Security has been beefed up at northeast India's busiest Railway station in Guwahati with 16 close circuit cameras already being installed at all platforms considered vulnerable for attacks by militants.
Police informed that as per confession made by one Abul Hussain, a staff in the accounts department of Guwahati University who was arrested by police last week for having close links with numerous Islamic fundamentalist groups, at least four Railway stations in Assam, including the one at Guwahati, were likely to be targeted by militants.
Doorframe metal detectors have been installed at all entry points to the station while Government Railway Police and paramilitary forces are using handheld metal detectors to scan luggage of thousands of passengers coming to the station everyday.
Finding it a Herculean task to scan passengers' luggage with hand-held metal detectors, the GRP has requested the Assam government to install X-Ray machines like the ones used in airports to check passengers' luggage.
The station in Guwahati has been targeted by terrorists on several occasions in the past. Three persons were killed and several others, including an armyman, were injured in a blast that rocked Guwahati Railway station on August 24, 1998. Another blast triggered by terrorists in the state couple of years back had left two armymen wounded.
The administration has launched a massive clean up drive to evict all small vendors sitting in and around the railway station.
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