Security forces across India on their toes to maintain peace

New Delhi: An overwhelming presence of men and women in 'khaki' on ground, intensive patrolling and monitoring of various social media platforms were the drill followed by state police forces to check any inflammatory or mischievous act in the wake of the Supreme Court verdict that cleared the way for creation of a Ram temple in Ayodhya.

The Union home ministry, from its North Block office atop the Raisina Hill here, kept a "constant and engaging" vigil across the country with central paramilitary forces, intelligence agencies and state police forces in toe. Union home minister Amit Shah called a meeting with National Security Advisor Ajit Doval, home secretary Ajit Bhalla, Director of the Intelligence Bureau Arvind Kumar at his residence even as he talked to some chief ministers such as Yogi Adityanath in Uttar Pradesh and Kamal Nath in Madhya Pradesh among others informing them about the support and available reinforcements, in case they needed any.

A senior home ministry official also kept in touch with chiefs of state police forces and CAPFs during the day, a senior official said.

Police forces in various states undertook prohibitive measures like clamping section 144 to prevent unlawful assembly and undertaking patrolling in sensitive and busy market areas to send a stern message against elements who may attempt to use the apex court's verdict to provoke sentiments of the common people.

"The situation in the entire state is absolutely normal. There has been no untoward incident till now. We had directed our field officers to keep patrolling and we are also preparing for police management for the festivals that will begin from Sunday," UP Director General of Police (DGP) O P Singh said.

Restrictions were imposed by the police in the entire Union Territory (UT) of Jammu and Kashmir as a precautionary measure.

The Himachal Pradesh police issued a warning against the circulation of fake news in the wake of the verdict.