The Delhi Police and Central security agencies have a job on their hands now to sanitise the area in and around Rajpath. India Gate lawns, Rajpath and the vital installations in the vicinity will be handed over to the Indian Army on Thursday till the parade at Rajpath and Beating the Retreat at Vijay Chowk is held. The hyper sensitive area will be checked with a fine-tooth combed to ensure it is free from explosives. There are chances that subversive elements could have exploited the chaos caused by the agitation by Delhi CM Arvind Kejriwal against Delhi Police and planted explosives to cause disturbance during celebrations.
A senior official said that there have been instances in the past too when terrorist groups had succeeded in planting Improvised Explosive Devices (IED) fitted with ABCD switches. Pakistan-sponsored terrorist outfits use ABCD switches in the Programmable Electronic Timer Device (PETD) in the explosive devices. Indian security agencies had found such devices in Hyderabad blasts and the one used to target the then Governor of Jammu & Kashmir General KV Krishna Rao during his Republic Day address at Maulana Azad stadium, Jammu had left eight dead and over 100 grievously injured. The triple blasts in the span of 13 minutes had ripped the dais used by the Governor to address the people of the State on January 26, 1995.
It is a well known fact that Pakistan is the largest manufacturer of the ABCD switches, popularly known as ABCD timers, and it has been found that most of the terrorists operating in Jammu & Kashmir and Afghanistan have been using them quite often. These timers can be set for as long as six months for the blast.
Senior Delhi Police officials said that they need to reclaim the area to conduct a thorough anti-sabotage drill in the entire area adjoining Rajpath. Thousands of men and officers from the Delhi Police, Central Paramilitary Forces and Special Forces have been deployed to conduct a through search of the sensitive zone and movements of people other than the security forces will be regulated henceforth. The area will be out of bounds to the general public and all Government buildings will be subject to fresh security audit to ensure nothing untoward happens during R-Day celebration, they added.