Ahmedabad, Jun 9 (IANS): Gujarat Police has issued an alert after Al Qaeda threatened suicide attack in Delhi, Mumbai, Uttar Pradesh and Gujarat over Prophet row. Ahmedabad city will also witness Jagannath Rathyatra on July 1 this time, after two years break due to Covid situation, in which millions of people participate.

For the first time, drones will be deployed to keep a strict vigil.

According to Ahmedabad Crime Branch DCP Chaitanya Mandlik, security has been tightened due to the threat posed by Al Qaeda. Security arrangements will be made after taking into account every aspect, he said. This time security will be provided from the ground to the sky. More than a thousand cameras will be deployed and CCTV surveillance will be conducted.

This time the arena, chariot, truck etc, will be connected to GPS system. A mobile application has been created by the police which will detect if there is any history sheeter, anti-social elements or people involved in any crime are near the place where local and outsider police personnel are standing. In case of any unpleasant incident, the police present at the spot will be alerted immediately.

Chaitanya Mandlik further said that the city collects all the data from the application and crime branch so that officials can get local information. While all the information coming from outside is available to the officers, members of the peace committee of that area have been included in this application.

It has been decided to install GPS system in all the trucks, elephants and bhajan groups in the route for the safety of all the people joining the rath yatra. This system will make it easy to get the location of the vehicle or person in case of any untoward incident. At the same time, the GPS system will be used to ensure that the security cordon of 3000 security personnel is not broken.

Earlier, top police officials including Police Commissioner Sanjay Srivastava on June 5 inspected the route of the Rathyatra from Jamalpur Jagannath temple to Saraspur Ranchodji temple.

Before that rehearsal of body worn camera was also conducted by Ahmedabad Police. This is the first time such a rehearsal was organised by the police. Officers on duty will be equipped with cameras on each route of the procession.

Mahant Dilipdas Swami of Jagannath Temple said that this year on the occasion of the 145th Rathyatra, the traditional route will be followed. The Rath Yatra will be held again after a gap of two years, so there is a lot of excitement among the devotees, he said.