Ahead of the US President, Mr Barack Obama's visit to India in November, a special US team Wednesday conducted a security survey in Punjab's Amritsar district, police said.
"A six-member team had come to Amritsar to conduct recce as President, Mr Barack Obama,
is expected to visit India in November. They inspected various tourist spots, important
roads and Sikh shrines in the district on Thursday," Mr K.S. Pannu, deputy
commissioner of police, Amritsar, told IANS.
"But this is not confirmation that Mr Obama will come to Amritsar. After evaluating various parameters and security arrangements, they will decide the places where the US
president will actually go. Now the team has left for Mumbai," said Mr Pannu.
The team, consisting of security personnel and officials of the US embassy, also visited
the holy Sikh shrine, Harmandar Sahib, here, which is popularly known as the Golden
Temple.
The team members also met senior officials of the Shiromani Gurudwara Prabandhak
Committee (SGPC), which manages the Golden Temple and other Sikh shrines in the
state.
SGPC chief, Mr Avtar Singh Makkar, was quite enthusiastic about Mr Obama's visit to India.
"We are very happy and all set to welcome Mr Obama at the Golden Temple," Mr Makkar said
here late on Wednesday.
"If he comes here, then we would raise various key issues related to Sikhs, who are
residing in the US. There has been an increase in incidents of hate crimes targeting
Sikhs mistaken for fundamentalist Muslims in the US," Mr Makkar said.
A senior official of the Golden Temple said the US team visited every nook and corner of
the shrine.