Kashmir spikes plan to set up counter-terror unit

JAMMU - The Jammu and Kashmir government has abandoned the plan to set up an elite anti-terrorism unit in the insurgency-riven state, five months after the formation of the squad was announced, a police official here said Sunday.

The Anti-Terrorist Squad (ATS) has been disbanded even before it was formally launched, the official said.

“The ATS never came into existence formally and whatever existence it had on paper too has been dismantled,” the police officer told IANS.

The decision to form the ATS of the Jammu and Kashmir police was taken in a cabinet meeting July 14 last year. A superintendent of police was made in charge of the squad, and worked under the supervision of the inspector general of police (IGP) of crime branch.

Two police officers who were tasked to set up the network have been relieved of the assignment.

Superintendent of Police Zubair Khan, who headed the squad, was transferred in December and is now posted as additional SP of Baramulla in north Kashmir. However, no officer was posted in his place at ATS.

IGP S.M. Sahai, under whom Khan was to form the group, was transferred in October to the office of the Jammu and Kashmir’s resident commissioner in New Delhi.

Special Operation Group (SOG) of the state police normally conducts anti-terror operations, including intelligence gathering.

“Hence it was felt that there was no need for having a parallel set-up to SOG,” the official said.