Obama’s security team visits Amritsar

AMRITSAR - Ahead of US President Barack Obama’s visit to India in November, a special US team Wednesday conducted a security survey in Punjab’s Amritsar district, police said.

“A six-member team had come to Amritsar to conduct recce as President Barack Obama is expected to visit India in November. They inspected various tourist spots, important roads and Sikh shrines in the district today (Wednesday),” K.S. Pannu, deputy commissioner of police, Amritsar, told IANS.

“But this is not confirmation that Obama will come to Amritsar. After evaluating various parameters and security arrangements, they will decide the places where the US president will actually go. Now the team has left for Mumbai,” said Pannu.

The team, consisting of security personnel and officials of the US embassy, also visited the holy Sikh shrine, Harmandar Sahib, here, which is popularly known as the Golden Temple.

The team members also met senior officials of the Shiromani Gurudwara Prabandhak Committee (SGPC), which manages the Golden Temple and other Sikh shrines in the state.

SGPC chief Avtar Singh Makkar was quite enthusiastic about Obama’s visit to India.

“We are very happy and all set to welcome Obama at the Golden Temple,” Makkar said here late Wednesday.

“If he comes here, then we would raise various key issues related to Sikhs, who are residing in the US. There has been an increase in incidents of hate crimes targeting Sikhs mistaken for fundamentalist Muslims in the US,” Makkar said.

A senior official of the Golden Temple said the US team visited every nook and corner of the shrine.