AP DGP regrets city blasts during his tenure

Hyderabad, Oct 29 (UNI) Andhra Pradesh Director General of Police (DGP) M A Basith today said the May 18 Mecca blasts and August 25 twin blasts, which altogether claimed more than 50 lives in the city, were bitter and painful incidents in his police career.

Speaking to newspersons here, Mr Basith, who will retire from the services on October 31, said, ''these blasts, triggered by terrorists, were the most disturbing incidents in my career.'' Stating that barring the blasts cases, police have adopted 'unique modus operandi' and dealt the fake passport case and scam in Sarva Siksha Abhiyan ( SSA) programme effectively, he said there was a communication gap between the media and police about the developments taking place in the main cases.

''We have to be vigilant at all public places to prevent major incidents like blasts. Basic precautions need to be propagated among the people continously,'' he added.

To a query, the DGP said OCTOPUS (Organisation for Counter Terrorist Operations) would start functioning once the government released orders of its formation. ''It requires planning and skilled manpower to deal with terrorist activities. It is expected that the government would issue orders in a week', he added.

The government had already appointed a senior police official AK Mohanty for the post of Director General of OCTOPUS.

UNI