Punjab Police intel dept to have internal security wing to tackle terror

Chandigarh In a move to restructure its intelligence department, the Punjab Police has formed a separate ‘internal security wing’ to specifically focus on anti-terrorism

Chandigarh In a move to restructure its intelligence department, the Punjab Police has formed a separate ‘internal security wing’ to specifically focus on anti-terrorism and anti-internal insurgency operations.

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Under this new administrative arrangement, three major wings of intelligence department, counter intelligence (CI), financial intelligence unit (FIU) and organised crime control unit (OCCU) will now be supervised by ADGP (internal security) — a new post created recently. 1993-batch IPS officer RN Dhoke was transferred to the post on September 9.

Earlier, functioning of these three wings (CI, FIU, OCCU) which are headed by IG, used to be directly supervised by the intelligence chief.

“The idea is to add more cohesiveness in the function of these three wings. Punjab being a border state has different types of challenges which vary from time to time. Posting of the ADGP to supervise three wings has been done with an aim to give more focus on internal security matters and is part of the restructuring of our police force,” DGP Dinkar Gupta told Hindustan Times.

As per information, chief minister Captain Amarinder Singh recently gave his nod for the restructuring of Punjab Police administration keeping in view the modern needs and challenges. Creation of ‘internal security’ wing is part of that strategy only, it is learnt. The government has alredy constituted ‘police governance reforms’ team led by ADGP (Punjab Armed Police) Kuldeep Singh to suggest necessary structural changes.

“In past more than five years, Punjab has witnessed targeted killings and other terrorist attacks. Probes into targeted killings have revealed that gangsters of Punjab had also joined hands with extremists to kill socio-religious leaders. Under such circumstances, a strong need to synergise the internal communication among CI, FICU and OCCU was felt. Because the intelligence wing often remains overburdened due to issues arising out of in and outside the state, it was decided to specifically give this task to a senior officer,” a senior home department functionary said.

All the special operations related to anti-terrorism and other anti-insurgency activities will be handled by this wing, it is learnt.

Notably, Intelligence Bureau (IB), which comes under the Union home ministry, has a separate internal security wing that primarily deals with terror threats.

A few militancy-affected states,too, have separate ‘internal security’ wings. In 2008, Karnataka Police had set-up a full-fledged division to carry out anti-Naxal operations. Here, too, the wing is headed by a ADGP-rank officer.