Kokrajhar April 1: Home ministry joint secretary (Northeast) Shambhu Singh today said security forces are geared to handle any situation and was confident that elections in the Bodoland Territorial Council on April 8 would be peaceful.

Accompanied by special secretary (internal security) of the home department Ashok Prasad, Singh visited Kokrajhar today and held a meeting with senior officials from the civil administration, security officials from the police, army, Sashastra Seema Bal and Border Security Force here to review the security situation ahead of the BTC elections.

Singh said the main purpose of his visit was to assess the ground situation and know the perception of the security forces on the law and order situation.

"We have deployed a lot of security forces. We have to see how they are deployed, what they are doing, what is their perception because the election right now is the concern of the district administration and the state. So we have come to ensure that our forces are geared to handle any kind of situation," Singh said, adding that the election should be impartial and peaceful.

"People should be able to vote according to their conscience, faith and belief. That is why we have to ensure that our troops are vigilant, visible and helpful to the people at large," Singh said.

He said the security forces are there to ensure people's safety and security.

"They will not be deployed in booths but will be there for looking after the people's safety and security," he said.

On the number of forces deployed in BTAD, he said additional central security forces have been deployed for the past three months since the operation against the NDFB (S) started after the December 23 massacre.

The operations against NDFB (Songbijit) would continue, he added.

The All Boro Students' Union president, Promod Boro, met Singh and Prasad and urged them to ensure foolproof security during the election.

Last year's parliamentary elections saw the death of a police constable while three others were injured at Harabanga when goons, alleged supporters of Independent candidate Naba Kumar Sarania, attacked police personnel on poll duty.

The violence was allegedly triggered by rumours of tampering of electronic voting machines.

The 2006 and 2011 Assembly elections and the BTC elections in 2005 and 2009 as well as the 2010 Lok Sabha elections saw around 200 people being killed in the four BTAD districts.