Chandigarh: Captain Amarinder Singh on Thursday issued strict directions to the state police and intelligence agencies to go all out to counter the increasing misuse of social media to spread hate campaigns. The CM held a meeting to review law and order in the state, also ordered stern steps to break the nexus between terrorists and gangsters, as well as between gangsters and jail staff, to prevent use of prisons by gangsters to carry out their nefarious operations. 

He also took serious note of reports of some gangsters operating from prisons, asking the authorities to undertake strict monitoring of jails. The home department was also directed to take immediate steps to fill vacancies in state prisons. “There is a need to instil the fear of the law to ensure that the state’s peace and harmony is maintained at all costs,” he said. Besides senior police and administrative officials, ministers Navjot Singh Sidhu, Manpreet Singh Badal and Tript Bajwa were also present at the meeting. 

Expressing concern over the recent killing of a Hindu Shiv Sena leader in Amritsar, Amarinder ordered the police to expedite investigation into the case. The police officials assured the chief minister that the culprits, who had already been identified, would be caught soon, according to an official spokesperson. He also instructed security agencies to adopt overt and covert measures to effectively counter the online hate campaign by Pakistan’s ISI and the communal tirade being launched by a section of the hardline Hindus against the Sikh community and vice versa. 

There was a clear bid to revive terrorism in the state, which could be traced to foreign handlers not just in Pakistan but also in other countries such as Canada, Germany, the UAE, Belgium, South Africa, Portugal and Saudi Arabia,” the CM was informed at the meeting, which took stock of the steps being taken by the security forces to curb the spread of divisive and communal forces. Director general of police (DGP) Suresh Arora informed that since March 2017, seven terror modules had been busted and 43 terrorists and radical operatives arrested by the state police. 

Among the top police officials who attended the meeting were DGP Suresh Arora and DGP Intelligence Dinkar Gupta, DGP Law and Order H S Dhillon, DGP Administration M K Tewari, DGP Jails IPS Sahota, ADGP Crime Pramod Kumar, IG Personnel V Neerja, IGP Crime Shashi Prabha, ADGP Chief STF H S Sidhu. Besides Advisor to CM Lt. Gen. (Retd) T S Shergil, Media Advisor to CM Raveen Thukral, CS Karan Avtar Singh, ACS (Home)N S Kalsi, CPS CM Suresh Kumar, PS CM Tejveer Singh were also present in the meeting.