Deoband to have ATS training unit

Lucknow, Aug. 17: The Uttar Pradesh government has decided to set up a training centre for Anti-Terrorist Squad (ATS) commandos in Saharanpur’s Deoband, known for its Islamic seminary Darul Uloom Deoband.

“Amid the Taliban’s savagery, here is a piece of news from UP. YogiJi has decided to open a commando training centre in Deoband. The work has also started on a war footing,” UP Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath’s media advisor Shalabh Mani Tripathi said in a tweet in Hindi.

Over one and a half dozen ATS officers, selected from all over the state, will be deputed there, he added in his tweet.

According to sources, the government has already allotted over 2,000 square meters of land for establishing the ATS training centre in Deoband.

On the government’s decision, Additional Director General of Police

(Law and Order) Prashant Kumar said, “The government is strengthening STF and ATS.”

Land has been acquired for this purpose of setting ATS commando training centres at many sensitive and important places from the operational point of view, he said.

The other places where ATS commando training centres are being set up include Meerut, Bahraich, Shravasti, and Jewar (Gautam Buddh Nagar) besides Deoand, he added.

“ATS is setting up units there. Where we get more land, we will set up a training centre there. In Deoband, 2,000 sq mt of land has been transferred by the government to the ATS. We will soon start an ATS unit there,” he said.

“Deoband is situated at the border of Uttrakhand and Haryana and is important for increasing our strength in Western UP,” he said. —