GRP was alerted a day before Secunderabad riot: IB

HYDERABAD: The Intelligence Bureau (IB) of Railway Protection Force (RPF) disclosed that they had alerted the Government Railway Protection (GRP) about possibilities of violence a day before the anti-Agnipath protest had taken place on June 17 at the Secunderabad railway station in which properties worth over
Rs 20 crore were damaged and an agitator was killed during police firing.

According to the IB officials, the GRP was informed about chances of violence by the agitators numbering between 50 and 100 on June 17 around 9 am. Around 8 am on the day of attack, IB officers posted near the main gate of Secunderabad railway station spotted over 100 youth gathered near an Irani cafe opposite the railway station and another group close to Kakatiya Gate and a huge group comprising hundreds at the Rathifile entrance gate.

“We grew suspicious, got split and rushed towards the group without being noticed. They were discussing in Telugu. We clearly heard their leader directing them to form two groups comprising 80 to 100 and enter the station through the main gate and Kakatiya Gate and another group would come from Rathifile Gate. I assumed it was a guerrilla warfare technique,” a senior IB (RPF) officer said.

Since June 13, when ‘Chalo Raj Bhavan’ was announced by the Agni job aspirants, the IB (RPF) noticed a lot of suspicious movement in and around Secunderabad railway station.

Apart from this, two days before the attack on railway station, seven out of 88 lodges around railway station were booked by suspicious people specially youth and their abnormal behaviour made the IB officials more curious. But they did not know that the entire plan of attack was discussed in a WhatsApp group avoiding a mass gathering leading to suspicion.

Reacting to the IB info, a team of GRP forces on June 17 had inspected all the seven gates at the railway station but did not find anything suspicious and left their post deploying a sub inspector, two constables and three home guards who were unarmed at the gates, the official said.

“On June 16, we already had GRP information that seven lodges out of 88 around the railway station were occupied by some youth and also mentioned about their strange behaviour and informed the same to GRP and entered in our daily situation report (DSR),” the officer said.

Following the incident, the IB (RPF) collected the details of the GRP officials’ attendance, evidence of CCTV footage from all cameras especially at the main gate that caught visuals of the group of agitators standing before the cafe and heading towards the main gate and other two gates. Statements from GRP reliever police officials, railway staff and the officers posted on seven gates on the day of attack were recorded and a detailed report was submitted to senior authorities.

“It was a surprise attack, there were thousands of passengers arriving and departing. We informed our senior officials as soon as we came to know. It took some time but after the paramilitary forces arrived, the entire situation was under control. No force can control this type of planned attack and they were in several hundreds from three directions,” a GRP official explained.