COIMBATORE: The police department has initiated work to form an Anti-Terrorism Squad, which was announced by the chief minister in the aftermath of the car blast that took place in the city in October 2022. Personnel for the anti-terrorism squad would be drawn from the intelligence unit and will have a strength of 383, sources said. A sum of Rs 57.51 crore has been allocated to the ATS.
“We have constituted a panel to identify personnel for the team and are studying the aspects that we need to focus on. Set Each district will have one ATS unit. Currently, we are listing the districts and cities from where activities of terrorist and banned organizations have been reported. Major cities like Coimbatore, Madurai, and Chennai will be given importance. We will also keep an eye on the districts located along the state borders,” K Shankar, ADGP (Law & Order) told TNIE.
The ATS will be on the lines of Thunderbolt in Kerala, OCTOPUS (Organization for Counter-Terrorism Operations) in Andhra Pradesh and Anti-Terrorism Squad (ATS) in northern states, police sources said.
Sources said advice has been sought from retired police officers who served in intelligence units and officers who have investigated important cases.
Similarly, they gathered inputs from the other states where they have ATS units. “We are consulting on how to investigate the case with the help of other state police, or with the central intelligence agencies, if there is possibly a connection across the borders,” sources said.