16 December,2009 09:05 AM IST | | Chandran Iyer
Although the Centre has issued alerts for Metro cities, security agencies in Pune claim ignorance to any fresh security threat
The Centre has issued a terror alert following intelligence inputs that a Taliban trainedu00a0 terrorist squad may have sneaked into Mumbai, Kolkata, Ahmedabad and Delhi to carry out fresh terror attacks. However, these alerts do not seem to have percolated to the defence establishments in Pune, which is the headquarters of the Southern Command, even though the FBI terror suspect David Headley had visited the city twice.
The Central alert sent four to five days ago also shared with the states inputs provided by an FBI team regarding the "targets" surveyed by Headley during his visit to India between 2006 and 2009.
MiD DAY tried to do a security audit by talking to the officials of defense establishments to find out whether they have received any special instructions to beef up the security in the wake of intelligence inputs and the answer was far from satisfactory.u00a0
No threat
Most of them said they do have security in place after the Mumbai terror attack and that the same continues but denied that they have received any fresh alerts or have been asked to step up their vigil.
The police on the other hand refused to comment. Joint commissioner of police Rajendra Sonawane said, "I do not want to comment on this matter."
The director of HEMRL
A Subhananda Rao said, "Our routine security is in place, but we have not received any security alerts or inputs."
Spokesperson of defence establishment Prashant Pathrabe, said, "Security always existed in all the defence establishments. It was further tightened after the 26/11 terror attack in Mumbai and the same continues."
Sensitive zone
Pune is host to a large number of defence establishments such as the Ammunition Factory Khirki, College of Military Engineering, Armament Research and Development Establishment (ARDE) and HEMRL besides the National Chemical Laboratory.
The ARDE is the main lab, which is involved in the development of conventional armaments for Indian army that includes artillery and guns, rocket launchers, MBT tank guns, ammunition and bombs.
HEMRL laboratory has high energy materials, which is used in developing missiles including Akash, Trishul, Nag, Prithvi, Brahmos, Agni and several other missiles.
The city also has the National Defence Academy in Khadakwasla, which is a joint services academy of the cadets of all the three wings Army, Navy and the Air Force.
