Army at it again, stops morning walkers

Secunderabad: Less than a day after the roads were reopened to public, the bogey of frisking by Local Military Authority resurfaced here on Wednesday. The morning walkers of Secunderabad received a rude jolt at Wellington Road when they were stopped by Army jawans from entering.

Venkateshwar, a regular said, “It is ironical that all these days even when there were restrictions, morning walkers had no problem but now out of the blue we were stopped.” Another morning walker Suresh, a resident of Jalal Gardens in West Marredpally said, “When asked for reasons, the jawans just said that they were told to stop morning walkers. While motorists were allowed, morning walkers mostly middle-aged and retired persons who are by any stretch of imagination not a security threat were stopped.”

The joy of the reopening has been short lived and the fear among people of closed roads has returned. Incidentally, the Defence Minister Nirmala Sitharaman who issued the order of reopening of all roads in the 62 cantonments of the country was in the city on Wednesday.

In the meanwhile, Resident Welfare Associations (RWA) has been submitting representations to the Local Military Authority for demolishing walls that were constructed in the middle of roads in several places in the cantonment.”