“Police tried to break the boundary wall, but we found an LPG dump underneath after which we exercised more caution to avoid any kind of mishap,” he said.
“We have asked the forces to keep the complex surrounded. In the meanwhile, we halted the operation for some time and gave time to those followers who wanted to come out,” he said.
The DGP clarified that no deadline had been set for the operation to be completed and it will end only with the arrest of Rampal and till the time all innocent persons holed up inside have been safely brought out.
CM's Principal Secretary Sanjeev Kaushal said authorities were exercising “maximum caution” during the past few days after the High Court issued NBW against Rampal, saying this caution was justified as scores of innocent lives, including those of children and women were at stake as they were being used as human shield.
“Even today we did not return retaliatory fire despite provocation,” he said.
Asked if there had been delay on the part of the police to secure Rampal, the DGP said they were in midst of a “very tough operation”.
“One has to understand that we are facing a very hostile group inside the Ashram. We know there are women and children in numbers inside the ashram, and even babies, some just one-year-old. We have over-riding priority to save innocent lives,” he said.
The DGP said the authorities had during the past few days cut off supplies to the Ashram, diverted traffic and used all sorts of “persuasive measures” to execute the high court orders to secure Rampal.
“We are committed to carry out the directions of the high court and at the same time use minimum force and avoid casualties altogether or keep it at minimum,” he said.
On allegations that many mediapersons were injured in “police attack”, he said it was unfortunate that journalists had been wounded while discharging their duties.
