Minutes after the three serial blasts that rocked Uttar Pradesh, on Friday afternoon, killing 10 people, a high alert was sounded across Karnataka.

This was following an advisory from the Union Home Ministry to all states and union territories to step up vigil and surveillance in the wake of the serial blasts.

“Besides, airports and government buildings, security has been especially beefed up at High Court and district courts in district headquarters,” said Additional Director General of Police (Law & Order) Shankar Bidari.

“We have a masterplan to prevent terrorist attacks and we hold regular drills to prepare the police to combat any such activity,” said Additional Commissioner (Administration) Jyoti Prakash Mirji.

The officer said that the police have sensitised the personnel at all the sensitive and vulnerable places, like the Vidhana Soudha, High Court, airport, software firms, science and research institutions, malls etc to be on their guard and watch out for any suspicious movement or baggage.

Another senior police officer said that though the attacks have taken place in North India, possibilities of another terror attack in South can’t be ruled out.

“There are sleeper cells everywhere, including Karnataka. New extremist groups have come up, which owe allegiance to Lashkar-e-Toiba (LeT), Jaish-e-Mohammed (JeM), Harkat-ul-Jihad-al-Islami (HuJI) etc. We are keeping a watch on some frontal organisations in the State that project themselves as social or charitable organisations but are actually involved in militant activities,” said a senior police officer.

Courts vulnerable targets
Courts are among the most vulnerable terror targets because of the number of people, who visit them and the poor security arrangements there.

There are five major court premises in Bangalore city alone. Around 15,000 to 20,000 people visit the City Civil Courts complex every day, while around 2,000 people on a daily basis visit the High Court and Magistrate Courts complexes, each.

Around 700-1000 people attend Mayo Hall courts every day. The ‘Nyaya degula’ building housing labour courts, family courts and mediation centre etc has about 1,000 visitors, on an average daily basis. “There are superior rank police personnel who monitor security at the court premises but a lot more needs to be done in terms of security arrangement,” said an official source.

He added that there’s a proposal to install CCTVs in civil courts complex. Though police claim that they have beefed up security in the courts and the High Court on Friday, official sources said that no special instructions were received with regard to security measures yet.