State, Gujarat govts to reward policemen

MUMBAI/AHMEDABAD: Maharashtra and Gujarat on Thursday announced Rs 10 lakh each as rewards for the Nagpur policemen who foiled a terrorist attack on RSS headquarters in that city.

Maharashtra deputy chief minister RR Patil told reporters in Mumbai that Rs 10 lakh would be given to the Nagpur policemen for foiling the attack.

In Ahmedabad, Gujarat chief minister Narendra Modi announced the reward of Rs 10 lakh for the Nagpur police personnel, saying the “attack on RSS headquarters is an attack on patriotic activities in the country”.
Police shot dead three heavily armed militants who tried to enter the RSS headquarters in Nagpur in the wee hours on Thursday.

Meanwhile, home minister Shivraj Patil said the government is doing all that is required to defeat such designs. Condemning the attack, Mr Patil, who is in Singapore on a three-day visit, said: “Militants have been trying to disturb peace and communal harmony in the country.”

In a statement from the city-state, he said: “I am relieved that the bid has been foiled by alert security personnel” and declared the government’s resolve to defeat such terrorist designs.

Observing that there was a “terrorist plan” to strike at the RSS headquarters, minister of state for Home, Sriprakash Jaiswal, said the Centre “is determined to combat terrorism. We will end terrorism. The government will never bow before any terrorist outfit.”

Maintaining that anti-national elements wanted to hurt the rapid progress being made by India in economic and other fields, Mr Jaiswal told reporters that “they (militants) are trying to disturb and weaken the secular fabric of the society by targeting our multi-religious country with cultural diversity and its security”.

Calling for calm, Mr Jaiswal said that “after such an incident, we Indians should strengthen our unity and brotherhood and that there should be no adverse reaction from any section of the society”.