The State Government has tightened security at Khajrana Ganesh temple in the city following an anonymous letter received by the management of Shirdi Temple Trust to blow up the temple along with the Shirdi Sai Baba temple and other landmarks in Mumbai on November 9 next month.
Following reports to blow up Khajrana Ganesh temple in the media on Wednesday, both the district and the police administration in a swift action sounded high alert in and around the temple and pressed into service its bomb disposal and sniffer dogs to trace and spot any suspicious looking objects on the temple premises.
Besides pressing into service its sniffer dogs’ squad and bomb disposal squad, a large number of police forces were deputed on roads leading to Khajrana temple as well as on the temple premises, throwing a heavy security cordon to prevent any possible mishaps.
As Khajrana temple attracts largest number of crowd on Wednesday, the police administration not leaving anything to chance, alerted its bomb disposal and sniffer dogs squads. The dog squad after reaching temple premises at 9 am started making intensive searches at the premises. After sometime, bomb disposal squad also reached there and searched the premises thoroughly. Besides shops in and around Khajrana temple were also put through metal detector tests as a precautionary measure.
Further in order to prevent any untoward incident, the Khajrana Temple Management has banned entry of devotees in the sanctum sanctorum. Following the ruling, the devotees visiting the temple, will have to offer prayer and worship the deity from outside and as such they would not be allowed to have a Rs prakrima’ (making round) of the sanctum sanctorum of the temple till further order.
DIG Rakesh Gupta said that measures to step up security at Khajrana temple were initiated in the wake of reports in the media to blow up the temple along with Shirdi temple in Maharashtra. Khajrana Ganesh Temple administrator Manish Singh said a search was carried out in the temple premises by a sniffer dogs squad but no suspicious object was found. He further said that metal detectors have also been placed at the temple premises to prevent the entrance of any unwanted things inside..
According to Khajrana Temple administration, an intensive security checking would be carried out at the temple premises and also at the shops adjoining the temple on daily basis, till security threat to the temple peters out.
According to report, the iconic Shirdi temple Trust in Maharashtra yesterday received an anonymous letter wherein a threat had been given to blow up the Shirdi Sai Temple in Maharashtra on November 9. Besides Shirdi temple, the letter written in Hindi, had also stated to blow up Bal Thackeray’s memorial at Shivaji Park, Shiv Sena Bhavan in Mumbai and Khajrana temple in Indore.
The letter further said the blasts will be triggered to avenge the killing of one Khalil and his relative in Indore.
The anonymous letter received by the Shirdi Temple Trust on October 15, has pressed a panic button among the senior officials of both the district and police administration, more so as Khajrana locality of the city happened to be a safe hideout for banned SIMI activists.