Uttar Pradesh on high alert ahead of Republic Day

Lucknow, Jan 21: Security has been beefed up across Uttar Pradesh after Intelligence Bureau (IB) inputs warned that terrorists might slip in from the porous Indo-Nepal border and try to create trouble on the Republic Day.

Additional Director General (Law and Order) Mukul Goel has written to all district police chiefs asking them to step up vigil "in wake of the new tip-off" from the IB.

The tip-off to the state police is specifically about Indian Mujahideen (IM) terrorists Tehsin Akhtar and Pakistan-based Waqar, who is learnt to be holed up in Nepal and is trying to slip into the state.

The National Investigative Agency (NIA) recently released sketches of 15 terror suspects who are feared to be in the state as sleeper modules "ready to act".

NIA released sketches of 15 terror suspects who are feared to be in UP

Police are making posters of these terror suspects and these would be pasted on railway stations, bus depots, malls and markets, an official of the home department told IANS. Five of these terrorists had escaped from the Azamgarh prison last year.

Special security advisory has been issued for Kanpur, Lucknow, Agra, Allahabad, Muzaffarnagar, Shamli, Meerut, Faizabad, Varanasi, Aligarh, Bulandshahar, Bareilly, Moradabad, Mau, Bhadohi and Azamgarh districts.

Vigil has been stepped up in districts of Maharajganj, Siddharthanagar, Bahraich, Kheri, Pilibhit and Gonda.

IANS