By Our Staff Reporter

BANGALORE, AUG. 5. The Director-General and Inspector-General of Police, Mr. V. V. Bhaskar, today said that police would assess the threat on the life of Sri Sathya Sai Baba and take appropriate measures.

When The Hindu contacted him following reports that there was a threat to Sai Baba's life from an extremist group, Mr. Bhaskar said that he would discuss the issue with his Andhra Pradesh counterpart and Karnataka's Director General of Police (Intelligence), Dr. P. S. Ramanujam, and initiate necessary measures.

According to reports, the Intelligence Wing of the Andhra Pradesh police has alerted the intelligence officers of Karnataka about the threat to Sai Baba's life from a militant group.

``However, on the instructions of the State Government, the Karnataka Police have been providing adequate security to Sai Baba when he visits Whitefield on the outskirts of Bangalore,'' Mr. Bhaskar said.

Referring to reports that the Karnataka Police have strengthened security at the Sri Sathya Sai Baba Ashram in Whitefield, Mr. Bhaskar said that since he was not in Karnataka at present, the question of augmenting the security did not arise.

An extremist group circulated pamphlets in Hyderabad recently urging the members of a linguistic group not to follow Sai Baba. Subsequently, the Sri Sathya Sai Foundation in Ananthpur in Andhra Pradesh issued a statement that the ashram was not against any linguistic group as alleged by the extremist group.