Police gets nationwide Anti-Terrorism Unit
Bangladesh Police has finally got a full-fledged Anti-Terrorism Unit (ATU) with a nationwide jurisdiction to combat militancy and terrorism.
The Public Security Division of home ministry in an order on Tuesday approved the unit.
With its headquarter in Dhaka, the ATU will have 581 posts -- 31 permanent cadre and 550 temporary -- and 41 vehicles.
Headed by an additional inspector general, the ATU will have a deputy inspector general (DIG), two additional DIGs, five superintendents of police (SP), 10 additional SPs, 12 assistant SPs, 75 inspectors, 125 sub-inspectors, 140 assistant sub-inspectors, 200 constables and 10 office staff.
Currently, the Counter Terrorism and Transnational Crime (CTTC) unit -- the only specialised counterterrorism unit of police under Dhaka Metropolitan Police (DMP) -- has to step in to launch anti-militancy operations in areas outside its jurisdiction.
The CTTC -- also assigned with combating cyber crimes, terror financing and mobile banking related crimes -- needs special permission from the police headquarters for going into action beyond its jurisdiction.
Counterterrorism officials hoped that the new ATU would enhance their capacity in the fight against militancy.
Police have long been demanding the formation of a fully-fledged counterterrorism unit specialised in battling militancy all throughout the country.
In the face of growing demand for a special counterterrorism police unit, the government in February last year formed the CTTC to deal with militancy effectively.
Around the same time, the police headquarters forwarded the proposal for the “Police Anti-Terrorism Unit” to the home ministry in a bid to step up the fight.
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