Security stepped up in Arunachal Pradesh

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Security measures have been stepped up in Lower Dibang Valley district of Arunachal Pradesh following intelligence reports of infiltration by some insurgents and Maoist groups from neighbouring Assam.

Official sources said here on Sunday that the anti-socials may try to create a sense of insecurity among the people and were likely to disrupt the proposed public hearing of 3000 MW Dibang multi-purpose hydro-electric project on October 24.

Lower Dibang Valley Deputy Commissioner Garima Gupta and Superintendent of Police Veenu Bansal said during a security review meeting yesterday at Roing that the district headquarters and the citizens had been put on alert, the sources said.

Bansal said that on interrogation of the persons recently arrested in connection with the GREF arms-and-cash loot case and the maoists in Lohit district, some alarming facts of the nexus between the insurgents and maoists had come to light.

Their agenda was to provoke the locals against the power projects that have been proposed in Dibang Valley and the maoists were working over ground as anti-dam activists, the SP said.

Bansal also said the persons arrested in Lohit district were found to be members of a Maoist organisation called Upper Assam Leading Committee of the Communist Party of India (Maoist) which may also have links with Maoists in West Bengal, Chattisgarh and Jharkhand.

In view of the threat, security measures have been beefed up and night patrolling by paramilitary forces has been intensified in soft target areas in the district, the sources said.

The DC and the SP appealed to the people to cooperate with the district administration and police by remaining vigilant and inform the police if any new face or strangers are found involved in suspicious activities in their area.

Labourers employed from outside the state should obtain inner line permit before they were employed, he added.