M A I N   N E W S

Bhuj gears up for Clinton’s visit

Bhuj, April 3
Anti-sabotage teams and the Bomb Disposal Squad (BDS) accompanied by State Reserve Police (SRP) personnel have swarmed the sensitive border district ahead of former US President Clinton’s whistle-stop visit here tomorrow.

Several battalions of the SRP and the border wing Home Guards have been deployed all along Bhuj, Ratwal, a village devastated in the killer quake of January 26 and Anjar, which figure on Mr Clinton’s itinerary.

The district police has also requisitioned the BDS and anti-sabotage teams, besides the state-of-the-art security equipment, including mine detectors, from other parts of the state and central agencies to meet any eventuality, DGP Border Range A.K. Singh said.

A large number of ISI agents have been nabbed and huge quantity of RDX and other explosives and weapons have been seized in the region in the past two years.

He said while Mr Clinton’s personal security would be looked after by US security services, the peripheral cover would be provided by the local police.

Police sources said as per protocol, Mr Clinton was under the “distinguished foreign visitor” or “Y” category, but he was being provided with “Z” plus security cover.

“There is only a general threat perception, but we are taking no chances,” Mr A.K. Singh said.

Nevertheless, the police was keeping a strict vigil on mischievous elements, he said.

NEW DELHI: His favourite restaurant is ready. He retains the beautiful suite. But unlike the high profile visit last year, Mr Bill Clinton’s return to India tonight has charity written all around.

Raising funds for the Gujarat earthquake victims is high on the agenda of the former US President, who makes a relatively low-key return to India tonight. However, hospitality will be no less for him at Maurya Sheraton, where he stayed last time also, hotel sources told UNI.

A traditional and warm Indian welcome, replete with “aarti”, garlands and the vermillion “tikka” await Mr Clinton when he reaches the hotel shortly after arriving at Indira Gandhi International Airport in a chartered United Airlines plane at 11.30 pm.

The hotel has readied the lavish Chandragupta suite, which was Clinton’s home during the March 19-22, 2000 visit also. The “Bukhara”, which he has described as among his favourite restaurants and where he sampled everything on the menu last year, has kept his favourite “murgh malai kabab”, “sikandari rann” and “seekh kabab” ready for the asking.

And as a special gesture for the former US President, who charmed one and all last year by breaking protocol and shaking hands and posing for photographs, the hotel is to offer him the life membership of the Golf Bar which opened last month. They are sure that this would ensure several return visits by Mr Clinton, a keen golfer.

In another marked departure from his high-security visit last year, when his entourage booked the entire hotel and the road outside was barricaded, the security arrangements are negligible this time round.

Also, unlike the last time when he was accompanied by his daughter Chelsea and mother-in-law Dorothy, Mr Clinton is not coming with any family members. At least 20 rooms have been booked for his entourage, which includes at least 10 Indian chief executive officers of American companies.

His trip has been sponsored by the American Indian Foundation.

Mr Clinton would leave for Ahmedabad tomorrow morning by a chartered Indian Airlines Airbus A320 and is to travel to Bhuj, Ratnal and Anjar in Gujarat, Calcutta and Mumbai before returning to the Capital on April 9. He has also expressed a desire to re-visit Jaipur and go to Udaipur but it is yet to be worked into his schedule, sources said.

In Anjar, he would visit the spot where about 400 schoolchildren participating in the Republic Day March perished under a pile of rubble following the January 26 killer quake.

On his return to the Capital, Mr Clinton would meet Prime Minister Atal Behari Vajpayee before leaving in the early hours of April 10. PTI, UNI