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CM announces new ‘commando force’, police say no clarity yet
The top brass of state police is still clueless about what the new unit will be about and what its role would be.
Karnataka chief minister Basavaraj Bommai cancelled celebrations to mark his first year in office on Thursday over the murder of Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) youth wing worker Praveen Nettaru, and announced creation of a new “commando force” to tackle “terrorist” organisations conspiring to create communal unrest in the state.
However, the top brass of state police is still clueless about what the new unit will be about and what its role would be.
Bommai, who took oath on July 28 last year, said it will not be “appropriate” to opt for festivities after the murder of a BJP worker in Dakshina Kannada district’s Bellare, about 350 km from Bengaluru. “From last night after I heard the news of the murder, I was very disturbed, and my conscience did not agree after seeing the mother’s pain,” Bommai told reporters outside his residence in Bengaluru past Wednesday midnight.
The statement comes just over 24 hours after a 32-year-old leader from the BJP youth wing on his way back was hacked to death by three unidentified men late Tuesday night, sparking waves of angry protests across the state and threatening to boil over simmering communal tensions in the coastal district.
Praveen Nettaru, who has been an active member of the BJP Yuva Morcha and was a district committee member, was walking home after shutting his broiler chicken shop in Bellare when three men on a bike attacked him with sharp weapons, police said.
The move to cancel the programme and announce the forming of a new “commando force” appears to be an effort to contain the growing anger among the youth wing of the BJP, many of whom have resigned on Thursday in protest against their own party-ruled government, people aware of the developments said.
“Today looking at all the incidents, this is a very big net. There is a conspiracy in which several organisations want to disrupt harmony in the society, disturb peace, cause harm, stir feelings of hate among common people, rake up communal tensions and create unrest in the country,” Bommai said.
“Such actions to kill any innocent by any organisation with any name and to completely destroy it, there is an existing system. Other than this system, we have taken a decision to form a completely new commando force, intelligence, ammunition, training.... an anti-terrorist, special training anti-terrorist commando force,” Bommai said.
HT spoke with four senior IPS officers, who said police weren’t consulted about the creation of the “commando unit” before the announcement was made. Police are perplexed about how the proposed armed, tactical unit would operate and what would its mandate be.
A senior IPS officer told HT there was a lack of clarity within the department on the new unit. “The Centre for Counter-Terrorism in Bengaluru has a special tactical division, raised on the lines of National Security Guards. They are our premier commando force. Apart from that we already have a SWAT (Special Weapons and Tactics) unit in Bengaluru and Dakshina Kannada (Mangaluru). Where will the new unit fit? We have no idea,” said the officer.
Another officer said tactical units can’t operate in isolation, and they have to be backed up by intelligence units. It remains unclear whether the new unit will have investigation powers. “To give an example, the Garuda unit, our commando unit, does not have any investigative powers. It is only when city police or an intelligence unit gets specific information about a threat, these units are deployed. Their job is to carry out a precision military-style intervention. So, how will this new unit operate without intelligence support in question,” said the ADGP rank officer.
Asked, Karnataka police chief Praveen Sood said, “particulars of the unit will be discussed with the chief minister and other officials soon.”
A retired Director General of Police, who didn’t want to be named, told HT that the chief minister’s statement was a kneejerk reaction. “Before announcing a tactical unit, the chief minister hasn’t consulted the police force, who are the experts on the matter. For now, we will set aside the training and logistics aspects, but there is no clarity on what this unit will do. We already have tactical units that can carry out anti-terror operations, then is the Chief Minister saying the new unit will attack his party’s opponents? This is dangerous,” he said.
The retired DGP also pointed out that the creation of a unit that would have autonomy and will not report to the existing enforcement agency, as a result of a political murder, is a dangerous precedence. “Since the murder, BJP leaders have made statements like shooting those responsible for the murder and then hurried decision to start such a unit is worrying, to say the least,” the officer added.
