NEW DELHI: Lieutenant-Governor V K Saxena has asked the police commissioner and the chief secretary to carry out a series of preventive measures after the November 10 Red Fort blast that killed 13 people. The attack, carried out by a “suicide bomber”, involved ammonium nitrate among the explosives used.
In written directions issued on November 19 to Police Commissioner Satish Golcha and Chief Secretary Rajeev Verma, Saxena called for stricter monitoring of ammonium nitrate, security audits across crowded public places, and consultations with social media platforms to track radicalised content.
According to the communication, the police were to “maintain a digital record of entities purchasing and selling Ammonium Nitrate beyond a certain threshold, including photographs of buyers and sellers”. He has asked the police chief to revisit the Standing Order of 2022, which governs the licencing, sale, storage, and transport of the chemical under the Delhi Police Act, Explosives Act, and the Ammonium Nitrate Rules.
Saxena has also directed cops to hold consultations with Meta and X to enable “scientific tracking of radicalised content aimed at brainwashing citizens”. The administration has been asked to build a central database of doctors and paramedical staff employed in hospitals, especially private facilities, along with their medical degrees.