Extra security scan of youngsters at Kashi Vishwanath

If you are young and dressed in hip attire, you are bound to go through an extra security check at the hands of security personnel posted in the highly sensitive Kashi Vishwanath-Gyanwapi complex in Varanasi.

Security at the complex housing the world famous Kashi Vishwanath shrine and Gyanwapi mosque has been tightened, following the May 18 blast at Hyderabad's historic Mecca mosque and serial blasts in the Golghar area of Gorakhpur on May 22.

Bearing the brunt of the enhanced security will be the youth, especially those aged between 20 and 30 and dressed in hip attire and sports-shoes.

"It is the youngsters who are often found to be involved in terror acts across the country. Recruitment of smart and educated youth in terror modules has forced us to go for extra checks, especially of those wearing hip attire and sports-shoes to restrict any possibility of explosives being stashed in expensive sartorials," Additional Police Superintendent (Gyanwapi Security) Jugal Kishore Tiwari said on Thursday.

Checking at all entry points to the complex has further been tightened and the youth will be subject to multiple surprise checks anywhere, right from entering to leaving the area.

Eight close circuit TV cameras installed in the complex will help us spot suspected youth who will then be subjected to surprise checks, Tiwari said adding, 20 more CCTVs will shortly be installed.

The complex security has been entrusted to the UP police, PAC and CRPF.

With rising influx of devotees during the auspicious extra month Malmaas, security personnel presence has been increased in both red and yellow zones of the three-tier security set up.

Keeping in mind the use of tiffin boxes in the Gorakhpur and Hyderabad blasts, tiffin boxes of even the CRPF personnel deployed in Red Zone security has been prohibited.

"Now, the CRPF personnel will have to travel oustide the complex to take their lunch, which was hitherto served to them in the red zone only," the ASP added.

The use of cell-phones by security personnel has also been restricted, with only those alloted mobile phones by the government allowed to carry and use them in the complex.

Meanwhile, in another significant decision, the district police has started exhaustive checking of devotees thronging the Ganga ghats in Varanasi to catch a glimpse of the evening Ganga arti.

Metal detectors, both through fixed gates and hand-held metal detectors, have been installed at the old and new Dashwashamedh Ghats -- the two ghats which attract a deluge of devotees, including foreign tourists every evening during the Ganga arti.

The checks at the twin ghats have been initiated keeping in mind the blasts which took place at crowded places both in Hyderabad and Gorakhpur.

PAC commandos armed with sophisticated weaponry and bomb disposal squad and sniffer dogs have also been pressed into service on the twin ghats.