New Anti-Terrorist Squad for B'lore

New Anti-Terrorist Squad for B'lore
Wednesday July 11 2007 00:03 IST

BANGALORE: To counter increasing terror activities in the City, the State Government is contemplating to establish Anti-Terrorist Squad in Bangalore.

The new unitwill exclusively focus on terror activities in the City.

``This will be a national agency and will follow the lines of the Mumbai ATS. We will recruit more officials and they will get trained in Mumbai,''

State DG&IGP K R Srinivasan told this website’s newspaper.

``We will recruit new officials and also get specialists to join the Bangalore ATS,'' he said. Karanataka ATS will also be improved, with more manpower and better infrastructure facilities.

The Police Department, he said, has decided to follow Mumbai ATS model as it had a vast experience in anti-terrorism operations. The ATS in Karnataka do not have any such experience.

The police, he said, are facing many difficulties in the investigations related to the terror network as there are not many officers, who have experience in anti-terrorism operations.

The State Police Chief also said that there is a need to strengthen the intelligence cell, which has been quiet weak. On the failure on the part of experts in IISc Bangalore to even decode the hard drive recovered from Kafeel's house, Srinivasan said that they felt the need for specialised training for their officials.