Haryana home minister Anil Vij on Wednesday said Anti-Terrorist Squad will be constituted in the state.

Presiding over a meeting regarding the security of the state with officers of the home department and the police department, the minister said officers of the rank of Deputy Inspector General (DIG) and Superintendent of Police (SP) will be deployed in the Anti-Terrorist Squad (ATS).

Vij said in view of the recent attack on the headquarters of the Punjab Police IntelligenceWing in Mohali (Punjab), there is a need to strengthen the security of the state.

“Keeping a close vigil on the activities of terrorists and anti-social elements, we have to investigate with regard to the presence of sleeper cells. and pay attention to their modus operandi,” he said.

“We cannot take any risk and have to break their network. To restrain anti-national people, we have to reach at the origin with regard to release of such anti-national video messages on social media,” Vij added.

The home minister asked officers to install night vision CCTV cameras in their respective jurisdictions, especially in crowded areas where the probability of such incidents is usually high, and take the help of social organisations and institutions.

Apart from this, the work of fixing and installing CCTV cameras should also be completed at the earliest to ensure proper security of government offices and buildings all over Haryana, he added.

While directing the officers, Vij said that a campaign should be launched to strengthen the inspection of tenants in the entire Haryana so that no unknown and anti-social person is living in any house in disguise.

In the meeting, additional chief secretary, home department, Rajeev Arora said a security audit of all police offices and government buildings in the state would be conducted so that no untoward incident takes place.

“Also, the security of VIPs will further be strengthened and emphasis will be laid to enhance vigil at bus stops, railway stations, malls, cinema halls, and crowded areas,” he said adding places like hospitals, hotels, dharamshalas, etc., work would be done to increase the investigation and monitoring by the SHO of the concerned area.
Haryana Director General of Police, PK Agrawal said a campaign would also be launched to sensitise people about unclaimed objects. Similarly, focus on checking buses and trains coming from different states, he said.

The DGP said meetings would be held with police officers of various border states and intelligence information would be shared so that security could be beefed up.

During the meeting, he instructed the police officers to impose a ban on the sale of fake SIM cards and pre-activated SIMs. Arora directed the officers to collect the information of all the distributors, and retailers providing mobile services in their respective jurisdictions and districts and make a directory.