LUCKNOW National Security Guards (NSG) officials, along with a team of commandos, will begin a four-day visit to Ayodhya on Wednesday to initiate the process of setting up an NSG hub in the city and to assess and review the security of the newly built Ram temple, senior district administration and police officials of Ayodhya said on Tuesday.
Officials said that the NSG team was likely to conduct mock drills in coordination with local police and other CAPF units for capacity building and to reduce response time in case of any adverse situation. The NSG hub in Ayodhya would be the first response centre of this elite security agency in the state, they said.
Earlier in the second week of June, the union government announced that NSG units would be established in Ayodhya, Pathankot, and Kerala. The Ayodhya unit is expected to be operational by the end of this year and will assist local police and other CAPF units.
Inspector General of Police (IGP) Ayodhya range, Praveen Kumar, confirmed that the NSG team would be in Ayodhya from Wednesday to carry out an exercise of threat perception and assess the existing security system for the Ram temple.
He said the NSG authorities might hold meetings with local authorities and representatives of the Central Reserve Police Force (CRPF), Provincial Armed Constabulary (PAC), and UP Special Security Force (UPSSF) to develop a new security plan in light of regular threats from different terror groups to the temple.
{{/usCountry}}He said the NSG authorities might hold meetings with local authorities and representatives of the Central Reserve Police Force (CRPF), Provincial Armed Constabulary (PAC), and UP Special Security Force (UPSSF) to develop a new security plan in light of regular threats from different terror groups to the temple.
{{/usCountry}}An Ayodhya district administration official said the NSG authorities had already applied to the office of the Ayodhya district magistrate for land allotment for the agency’s hub, scheduled to be established by the end of this year.
Notably, the NSG unit in Ayodhya will be armed with specialised weapons and anti-drone measures. Once the new hubs, including Ayodhya, are operational, there will be eight NSG hubs across the country. Currently, there are five regional hubs in Mumbai, Kolkata, Hyderabad, Chennai, and Gandhinagar. These locations were identified based on threat perception and their geographical proximity to nearby sensitive areas.