Capital straightens up for Clinton

The nearly seven km stretch of road from the airport to Maurya Sheraton Hotel where President Clinton will be staying, has been divided into 12 security sectors with about 30 police officials manning each sector.

A senior police official said even manholes all along the routehave been thoroughly checked for any devices hidden in them.

Security along the runway has been taken over by the US State Department security service personnel and sniffer dogs were pressed into service.

Several large vans have been kept ready to ferry the staff accompanying the US President to the hotel. Ambulances have also been stationed at the airport.

Meanwhile, ahead of Clinton’s visit to Agra on March 22, a bomb blast occurred in a bus bound for the city on Saturday on the Aligarh-Agra highway, killing one person and injuring 16. Apparently, the motive behind the blast was to cause panic among security agencies engaged in making arrangements for Clinton’s visit here.

The key issues facing Clinton during his one-week journey will be trying to persuade New Delhi and Islamabad to rein in their nuclear programmes and to ease strains over Kashmir.

Clinton, accompanied by his daughter Chelsea and mother-in-law Dorothy Rodham, yesterday departed from Andrews Air Force Base outside Washington at 5 pm, on the first trip by a US President to India since 1978.

The visit is designed in part to usher in a new era of relations between the two countries after the Cold War, when New Delhi had close ties with the Soviet Union. Clinton will also make a one-day stop in Bangladesh.

Clinton said on Friday that he hoped to ease tensions between India and Pakistan, which stunned the world when they set off tit-for-tat nuclear tests in 1998, but security analysts said it will be a daunting task at best.

“I want to do what I can to reduce tensions on the Indian subcontinent, to reduce the likelihood of weapons proliferation and the likelihood of conflict,”Clinton told reporters on Friday.

Clinton will stop in Pakistan for a few hours on his way home.

“I want to do what I can to support the restoration of democratic rule in Pakistan and to continue our cooperation with them against terrorism and in many other ways that we have both profited from over many decades,” Clinton added.

The President will spend tonight in New Delhi and begins his official journey with a day in Bangladesh tomorrow, followed by five days roaming across India, with stops in the Capital, Agra, Jaipur, Hyderabad and Mumbai.

Clinton will conclude his trip with a half day spent in Pakistan.

Meanwhile, in Agra, DIG A K Jain said today that two youths are suspected to be involved in the blast. According to preliminary investigations, the bomb might have been planted by two youths in pathan

suits who boarded the bus at Hathras and got down at Sadabad, some 20 kms later, he said.

The bus was on its way from Delhi to Agra via Aligarh when the bomb kept under the seats went off at Pili Pokhar village around 6:30 pm on Saturday.

Bomb experts had ruled out use of RDX, Jain, who visited the spot at Pili Pokhar, said. Apparently it was a time bomb, planted to go off when the bus reached the Agra Fort bus stand, two km from the Taj Mahal, he said.

However, the plan went awry as the bus got caught in a traffic jam. Jain said that the explosion occurred after a woman put her foot on a blue coloured bag under the seat of the bus.

The explosion has set off alarm in local security circles as Clinton is scheduled to visit the city on March 22 to speak about the need for striking a balance between development and environment in the backdrop of the Taj Mahal, which is threatened by pollution.