The Hindu : Front Page : Anti-Terrorist Squad to be revamped

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Tuesday, Jan 09, 2007
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Anti-Terrorist Squad to be revamped

Special Correspondent

M.P. Prakash

BANGALORE: The Government is planning to revamp the Anti-Terrorist Squad in the Police Department and convert it into a full-fledged unit with permanent security personnel and sophisticated weapons to effectively combat the rising terrorist activities in the State.

Addressing presspersons here on Monday, Home Minister M.P. Prakash said the rules would be changed to revamp and upgrade the squad. Recruitment will be made separately to the squad and the personnel will be given special training to handle sophisticated weapons. The squad, which was formed about 12 yeas ago, has become ineffective on account of frequent transfer of officials to various wings within the department, he said.

Many hardcore criminals and militants from other parts of the country migrated to Bangalore, as the surveillance on terrorist organisations here was not strict. The bane of the intelligence wing here had been the shortage of personnel professionally trained in intelligence gathering. As in the Intelligence Bureau, the Government would set up a permanent and trained set of staff for the intelligence wing in the State as intelligence gathering was a professional and continuous job, he said.

The Anti-Terrorist Squad would be given full powers to tackle terrorism. To discuss the modalities of revamping, the Home Department had called a meeting of senior police officers, Mr. Prakash said.

To gain international publicity, terrorists have been spreading their activities in Bangalore, which had been receiving investment from major companies abroad. In the wake of terrorist threat, the information technology firms had been instructed to upgrade security, Mr. Prakash said.

Director-General and Inspector-General of Police K. Srinivasan told The Hindu that they had received an alert from the Intelligence Bureau about terrorist movements in the State.

He said the Intelligence Bureau would routinely alert States whenever it received information about terrorist activities. He said investigation of Lashkar-e-Taiba activities in the State was under way. To a question on sale of drugs to foreign tourists by Kashmiri youths at Hampi, he said the police had been instructed to arrest the culprits.

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