Security Forces Tighten Vigil on Independence Day in Delhi

New Delhi: Surinder Singh, an assistant sub inspector with the Delhi police has not gone home for the last five days, he is part of one of the teams that have been carrying out 24 hour surveillance, combing streets, sanitising all religious areas, street vendors, and conducting door to door sanitation drives over the past two months, as the national capital has been turned into a virtual fortress on Independence Day.

Mr Singh told NDTV yesterday, "Security has been beefed up, we carried out surprise checks all night yesterday till 4 in the morning, then came straight to duty... living at the Badarpur police station only for last five days"

Police teams have been going about their duty through foot patrolling, PCR vans, motorcycle patrolling, Quick Response Teams, engaging local Resident Welfare Associations and receiving local inputs on suspects that they shadow.

The station house officer at Badarpur police station, Delhi's border area near Faridabad, Aishwir Singh, says "On the border we have pickets where we check incoming pedestrians and cars. We also check outgoing vehicles. We haven't gone home. The police station is our home. I explain it to my kids"

An impregnable ground-to-air security apparatus is in place at the Red Fort and areas within its five-kilometre radius. Over 150 National Security Guard (NSG) commandos along with SWAT unit and paramilitary forces will be positioned in the radius of 200-metre from the ramparts of the Red Fort, from where Prime Minister Narendra Modi will address the nation this morning.

Sky patrols by helicopters, an air defence mechanism, and sharpshooters of the NSG will be placed on all high rise buildings in the area.

500 CCTVs have been installed in and around the Red Fort to keep a close watch on the area. Nearly 6,000 police personnel have been deployed at market places, airport, railway stations, inter-state bus terminals, metro stations and places of strategic importance in the capital.