Bengaluru specific Anti Terror Squad to be in place from Nov 1

Bengaluru: A Bengaluru specific Anti Terror Squad would come into being from November 1 in view of NIA’s suspicion that some terrorist groups could be active in the city, Karnataka home minister S R Bommai said here on Tuesday.

“Taking serious note of NIA’s suspicion that at least 20 to 22 terrorist groups could be active in Bengaluru, the Bengaluru specific ATS has been formed and it will come into being formally from November 1,” Bommai told reporters here.

The decision to set up the ATS was made following the arrest of a number of Jamat-e-Mujahiddin Bangladesh (JMB) cadres in and around Bengaluru, from whom explosive devices and many other incriminating materials were found in the last one year, the NIA had said.

These terrorists, involved in the October 2, 2014 bomb blasts at Burdwan in West Bengal, in which two persons were killed, had holed up in and around this city, the agency said.

They had carried out training programmes in Krishnagiri hills and wanted to set up base here to carry out their Jehadi activities across the country, the NIA probe, which busted the gang, had revealed.

Bommai said the ATS would work in tandem with the NIA and added that extra precautionary measures would be taken in secluded places prone to such activities.

Along with ATS, cyber security and psychotropic drug control cells would be set up at the offices of all Deputy Commissioners of Police to contain cyber related financial frauds and drug peddling, the minister said.

Bommai said security would be tightened in high density areas like bus stands, malls, railway stations and markets.

“Directions have been given to the Bengaluru police commissioner to round up suspicious persons and keep an eye on all suspects,” he said.