Plot to kill Vajpayee, Sonia Gandhi
Tribune News Service

CHANDIGARH, Aug 26 — The Director-General of Haryana Police, Mr A.S. Bhatotia, said here today that three "human bombs", sponsored by Pakistani ISI, were active in the state to liquidate the Prime Minister, Mr Atal Behari Vajpayee, the Union Home Minister, Mr L.K. Advani, the Congress President, Mrs Sonia Gandhi, and certain other top leaders.

Talking to newsmen Mr Bhatotia said the other top leaders who faced danger from the "human bombs" were the Punjab Chief Minister, Mr Parkash Singh Badal; his son, Mr Sukhbir Singh; and the Jammu and Kashmir Chief Minister, Dr Farooq Abdullah.

The GDP identified the "human bomb" active in Haryana as Parshotam Singh of Matheri village in Ambala district, Narinder Singh of Salmana village in Kurukshetra district and Ratan Deep Singh of Safidon in Jind district. He said Ratan Deep Singh was associated with the Panjwar group. There were reports that Ratan Deep along with his wife had escaped to Pakistan from where he could cross over to India anytime.

The Haryana Police had launched a manhunt to nab the "human bombs". The state police was also coordinating with its counterparts in Delhi and Punjab.

Mr Bhatotia said the Uttar Pradesh Police had arrested a dreaded terrorist, Kashmira Singh, who hailed from Jind district. A party of the Haryana Police would go to Udham Singh Nagar to interrogate the arrested terrorist. Many terrorists who wanted to create disturbances during the elections, had been killed in the Terai area of Uttar Pradesh recently. The Delhi Police had also arrested another dreaded terrorist, Charanjit Singh, who was wanted by the Haryana Police.

Haryana had made massive security arrangements for peaceful conduct of polling. About 25,000 securitymen, about 1000 more than those deployed in the last Lok Sabha elections, would be on duty during the elections. Besides this, 18,000 Home Guards, 2000 NCC cadets, 2000 Special Police Officers and 900 forest guards will assist the police during the elections.

Twenty companies of the Central paramilitary forces had been made available to Haryana to ensure fair and free poll at 15,457 polling booths spread over 10 Parliamentary constituencies.

Each constituency would be divided into nine sectors and each sector would be under the charge of a DSP. No vehicle, except those granted passes by the returning officers, would be allowed to ply on the polling day. Five "nakas" would be set up in each sector to enforce a ban on traffic movement. The state had taken on loan about 400 additional mobile wireless sets from Himachal Pradesh and the Centre to ensure continuous flow of information.

The authorities had identified 2000 villages as sensitive. Besides stationing police personnel at each polling booth, an housing checking would be conducted by patrolling parties at every booth.