Mumbai: The Mumbai and Thane police have beefed up security ahead of the August 9 statewide shutdown call given by the Maratha Kranti Morcha (MKM).
The city will be fortified ahead of D-day with at least half-a-dozen Rapid Action Force (RAF) teams called into the state from the Centre, which will man the streets along with State Reserve Police (SRP) and local police personnel to avoid any incidents of violence.
The city will see unprecedented security in the wake of the violence in Thane and Navi Mumbai during the July 25 protests by the Maratha community.
Mumbai police spokeserson Manjunath Singe said, “We will have presence of close to or over 3,000 personnel to get any situation under control. A final meeting of senior officials is scheduled on Wednesday to decide on the strategy.”
Seven companies of RAF constituted by 700 personnel will be deployed in important cities across the state.
In the Mumbai region, the RAF will be posted at Navi Mumbai, where the only instance of riot-related death was reported during the last protests. Rohan Todkar (22) had died after being brutally assaulted in Koparkhairane.
The Thane police will deploy more personnel around some slum pockets.
On July 25, violence was reported from Nitin Company junction where stone pelting left three personnel of Naupada police station injured.
The accused were suspected to be from nearby slum pockets of Wagle Estate. Mumbai and its surrounding areas will have a sizeable presence of SRP commando teams along with traffic police on all routes.
