NSG to train State cops

Following a series of meetings between top officials of the State’s security establishment and the National Security Guard (NSG), the latter has taken an in-principle decision to train 358 policemen from the City Armed Reserve (CAR) in various aspects of counter-terrorism and rapid response to crises.

As part of of its modernisation plans, the state police is also procuding state-of-the-art weaponry to arm a special forces unit on the lines of the NSG. The training for the CAR personnel is significant because Bangalore was not among some of the Indian cities where the Centre has plans to station NSG units.

Long-term agreement

Highly placed government sources told Deccan Herald that the NSG has agreed in- principle to train these commandos, and that this will be a continuous and long-term agreement, helping the state police to upgrade and improve upon the quality of the force and its levels of preparedness.

The 358 men comprise the first batch of CAR personnel who will undergo training on a long-term basis.

Added to this are concerns that top IT firms in the City are prime targets for terrorists, beside being a centre for defence and space research.
Although there is an ATS cell, the state police’s decision to seek NSG training for the CAR personnel is testimony that so far it lacked the ability to respond adequately to terrorist attacks, much less prevent them.

Confirming that paramilitary battalions were being created, Home Minister V S Acharya said: “We are training paramilitary forces of three battalions of 100 each, trained by the KSRP.” The preliminary training is provided by the KSRP’s 9th battalion.
Part of the Internal Security Division created after the 26/11 Mumbai attacks in November 2008, comprising the Anti-Terror Cell, Anti-Naxal Cell, and a separate intelligence wing, the CAR commandos, once trained, will be utilised for terror-related emergencies.

Indicating that age was a criterion, and that all the CAR men picked will serve in the special unit they attain the age of 30, sources said they will have to undergo rigorous boot camp training at par with the NSG.