With an increase in terror activities in Bengaluru, the Karnataka government has decided to develop a dedicated Anti-Terrorist Squad (ATS) in Silicon Valley to tackle terrorism.
Karnataka Home Minister Basavaraj Bommai on Tuesday (October 15) said that the ATS will start functioning from November 1. He told the media that ATS was being set up following the arrest of Jamat-e-Mujahideen Bangladesh (JMB) militants from the city.
After Delhi, Mumbai and Chennai, Bengaluru will be the fourth Indian city to get a dedicated ATS station. The National Investigation Agency (NIA) inspector-general Alok Mittal in a recent national conference of chiefs of ATS and Special Task Force (STF) at New Delhi announced that over twenty sleeper cells of JMB are active in Bengaluru. The NIA also revealed that the Bangladesh-based terror outfit was making attempts to expand across South India.
He also said that JMB had also conducted a trial of rocket launchers at Krishnagiri hills along the Karnataka-Tamil Nadu border. The NIA had busted two terrorists responsible for the 2014 Burdwan bomb blasts in West Bengal, who were hiding in Bengaluru and was training cadres.
The JMB module was busted from the city and the investigation agency had seized explosives and other incriminating materials from the outfit. The NIA director-general Yogesh Chander Modi released a list of 125 suspected people who have close links with the JMB leadership to the concerned states. The agency had also issued alert to states and Union Territories over possible terror attacks
PM Modi also said that the Bangladeshi terror group is carrying out its operations under the disguise of Bangladeshi migrants. The NIA has also informed the state government that the terrorists are likely targeting the Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh (RSS) leaders.
