Anti-Terrorist Squad finds huge gaps in Shirdi shrine security

SHIRDI: A three-member Anti-Terrorist Squad ( ATS) which checked security arrangements at Shirdi shrine yesterday noticed that temple security is lax, officials said.

ATS officials went inside the temple with a bomb-like object wrapped in a carton since there was no proper checking by plainclothes officials at the gates, sub-inspector Sampat Jadhav said today.

The Shirdi shrine is on the hitlist of terrorists and hence a special police squad of atleast 1000 security men and CCTV cameras have been deployed in and around it.

Though the shrine trust spends Rs 4.5 crore on the machinery, ATS officials found that it failed during yesterday's exercise, Jadhav said.

Shri Saibaba Sansthan Trust's acting executive officer Ajay More said that stern action would be taken against security men.