In the wake of a series of attacks on churches and Christian institutions in the national Capital, the Delhi Police has decided to install electronic surveillance to prevent such incidents in future.
All 240 churches in the city have been identified and assessed for their foolproof security arrangements in the wake of recent attacks on them, and the Delhi Police has also plotted the buildings on a map for a holistic view. At present, out of the 161 churches which have installed CCTV cameras, 54 of them got the cameras installed after police insistence.
“There are 240 churches in the city. The district DCPs and police station staff have been asked to make surprise visits to the churches. These churches have also been depicted on a map for a holistic view,” said a senior police official.
Other than that, the Station House Officers (SHOs) of all police stations in Delhi have been asked to regularly patrol around churches while PCR vans, ERVs and motorcycle patrols have been deployed outside these establishments. At all vulnerable locations, static deployment is made in the night, he added.
Recently, the Delhi Police top brass had also appointed an officer of the rank of Additional DCP as the ‘nodal officer’ for attending to issues related to churches and educational institutions of the community.
The order of appointing a nodal officer was issued soon after Prime Minister Narendra Modi summoned Delhi Police Commissioner BS Bassi, in the wake of several attacks on churches and other institutions. Modi had assured the Christian community that the Government will not allow any religious group to face extortion — overtly or covertly. Meanwhile, Bassi appointed Joy Tirkey for the said post and asked him to regularly interact with the members of the community and ensure safety and security of the establishments run by its members.
A new Facebook page Minority Brethren has also been created by the Delhi Police for posting problems related to any institution or school. It may be recalled that the first case of alleged vandalism and arson happened in East Delhi’s Dilshad Garden area. A Special Investigation Team (SIT) under the supervision of Joint CP Crime Ravindra Yadav was set up to investigate the case, but nothing has come out so far.
The city had witnessed six cases of vandalism and theft in Christian institutions in the past two months. Thousands of Christians had come out on streets against the continuous target on their institutions terming it a “conspiracy against the minority population.”
Delhi Archdiocese spokesperson Savarimuthu Sankar had said that as they were less in numbers, some group was targeting them again and again. Of 1.6 crore population of Delhi, 1.5 lakh are Christians.