Mumbai to get anti-terror cell in every police station

The Mumbai police plan to set up an anti-terror cell (ATC) in every police station across the megalopolis, to counter the threat from terrorist organisations such as the Lashkar-e-Taiba. Presley Thomas reports.

The Mumbai police plan to set up an anti-terror cell (ATC) in every police station across the megalopolis, to counter the threat from terrorist organisations such as the Lashkar-e-Taiba.

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This means it will soon be tougher to procure a SIM card on fake documents, rent out a house without registering the agreement or run ‘hawala’ businesses as money-laundering channels.

The idea is said to be the brainchild of joint commissioner of police (law and order) Sadanand Date.

Date was among those injured in the 26/11 terror siege of 2008, when he came face-to-face with recently executed terrorist Ajmal Kasab and his accomplice Ismail Khan at Cama Hospital on day one of the three-day attack.

His plan entails equipping all 92 police stations across the commercial capital with anti-terrorist machinery, police sources said. Date confirmed the plan but refused to elaborate on what this machinery would comprise, saying it was too early to comment.

Police sources, however, said that, to begin with, each police station would be allocated a special cell comprising one officer and three specially trained constables.

This cell will monitor every cellphone and SIM card vendor in the area and all real estate agents, registered and unregistered. It will also keep an eye out for possible hawala channels, used by terror groups to transfer funds from other countries.