NEW DELHI // India’s capital goes into lockdown mode this week as unprecedented security arrangements are put in place for the visit of the US president.
Barack Obama, the chief guest at this year’s Republic Day parade on January 26, will land in Delhi the previous day and leave on January 27. He is also expected to visit the Taj Mahal at Agra.
Although threat perceptions for such events are high, security agencies have received no intelligence about any specific danger, an Indian official said last week.
Central Delhi, through which the parade route runs, and the Delhi-Agra motorway will be closed to the public from January 24 to 26. US security agencies have asked that shops and hotels along the motorway, as well as in key central Delhi locations, be shut for those days.
One US request, however – that a 5-kilometre radius around the parade route be made a no-fly zone – has been turned down by Delhi, an Indian official said, because it would have meant cancelling the traditional Republic Day fly-past by the Indian air force.
On Friday, American security agencies met their Indian counterparts and police officials from Delhi and neighbouring states to discuss arrangements for Mr Obama’s visit. An advance Secret Service team had already been in the capital since the previous weekend, planning how to secure the city for the president’s arrival.
Roughly 90,000 Indian security personnel – from the police as well as the paramilitary Central Industrial Security Force – will be deployed across Delhi, along the motorway to Agra, and in Agra itself. At least 500 Secret Service personnel are expected to arrive with Mr Obama as part of his security detail.
“As far as we are concerned, Indian agencies will, more or less, act as facilitators for their US counterparts who compose the major chunk of the security blanket,” an Indian intelligence official told The Hindu newspaper on Monday.
The roads between the airport and Mr Obama’s hotel, the ITC Maurya; from the hotel to Rashtrapati Bhavan, the Indian president’s residence; and in and around central Delhi have been placed under human and electronic surveillance.
Indian police will begin “conducting raids and concerted action against interstate criminals, particularly those involved in heinous offences, repeat offender and gangs, et cetera in order to strengthen measures of counterterrorism,” the Delhi police said on Friday.
Breaking with Republic Day tradition, Mr Obama will ride to the parade in his own armoured car, a Cadillac nicknamed “The Beast”, rather than in the Indian president’s limousine. For the first time, a screen of bulletproof glass will surround the enclosure from where dignitaries view the parade.
American snipers will be posted atop buildings along Mr Obama’s routes and near the enclosure, and the Indian air force will provide cover from the skies with helicopters and planes.
Over the past couple of weeks, more than 15,000 security cameras have been installed around the city, including 75 sophisticated closed-circuit cameras with face recognition technology around Mr Obama’s hotel.
Sushant K Singh, a retired Indian army officer, said it was possible the media was being flooded with details about the security arrangements “to act as a deterrent for those thinking of doing something”.
“The best terrorist organisations plan everything meticulously and a failed terror attack hurts their brand badly,” Mr Singh told The National. “So they wouldn’t attempt something when the probability of failure is high. For the crazed lone wolf, there is only so much that you can do except hope that the security takes care of him.”
“The bottom line remains that these news reports of extensive security arrangements do serve a purpose, however limited, of deterring prospective attackers,” Mr Singh said.
The Press Trust of India reported on Monday that the United States has also cautioned Pakistan to ensure that no cross-border terrorism incidents occur on Indian soil during Mr Obama’s visit.
ssubramanian@thenational.ae
