In the wake of intelligence alerts that the temple towns of Tirumala and Tirupati are facing terror threat, about 300 police personal led by the Tirupati Urban Additional SP Umamaheswara Sharma cordoned off Tarakarama Nagar, a residential area near Renigunta, in the early hours of Friday and taken 12 suspected persons into custody.
The police, who divided into groups, took up searching operations in all the 6,000 houses and took the details of all inmates. They enquired with the local people whether they traced movements of any strangers in their locality.
And at the same time, some of the police parties took up vehicle checking on the colony roads and seized some two-wheelers when the riders failed to produce the documents. Tirupati ASP Sharma said suspecting the movements of anti-social elements and strangers in the locality, they took up the searches following the directions of the Tirupati Urban SP SV Rajasekhar Babu.
Saying that they had verified all the residences and took the details of those residing in the colony, he said that they made an appeal to the local people to inform the police whenever they found strangers in their area.
It is also said that the police took up the drive after being informed that some red sander smugglers were taking shelter in the area.
Meanwhile, with a large number of policemen arriving at their locality since early hours of the day, residents of Tarakarama Nagar and surrounding areas lived through some anxious moments.