… but sleep over ATS file
SURAJ NANDREKAR
PANJIM, JULY 1
Even eight months after the Goa Police proposed to set up its very own Anti-Terrorist Squad (ATS), the state government is yet to make up its mind on the proposal.
The state has been continuously on the hit list of terror organisations like Lashkar-e-Toiba for past couple of years.
After the Mumbai attack the threats assumed more significance as the terrorists used sea route to enter India and Goa has 109 kms of long coastline and is quite vulnerable to such kind of attack.
In a bid to thwart any threat the Goa Police had proposed to set up a ATS under Superintendent of Police (Intelligence) Atmaram Deshpande but the file is gathering dust in the state secretariat.
When contacted by Herald, SP Deshpande only said that the proposal has been submitted in November last year and is awaiting government nod.
However, sources in police department said that the government must decide now whether it wants a ATS squad or not.
‘To create ATS you have to recruit at least 150 personnel and provide them special training,’ sources said.
The personnel have to be given commando trainning, and so also training in explosives, weapons and tactics, cyber crime and communication, which takes a lot of time, sources claimed.
‘The ATS personnel will have to be good at everything and hence it needs at least 2 yrs for recruitment and training,’ sources stated.
A top official in the home department when contacted, on condition of anonymity, said that even if the state has not approved ATS yet, the state has begun recruitment process for Indian Reserve Batalion (IRB).
However, what is pertinent to note here is the IRB is quite different from ATS as the latter would have its very own intelligence wing and cybercrime wing which is quite essential in case of terror threats.
