Hyderabad to get special force to fight terror

Hyderabad, Dec 2 (IANS) Hyderabad will soon have a special force to deal with terrorist attacks, city police commissioner B. Prasad Rao said Tuesday.

The City Guards, as it will be called, will form part of State Security Guards (SSG), a proposed anti-terror force on the lines of National Security Guard (NSG).

Waking up to the vulnerability of the state in the wake of last week's terror attacks in Mumbai, the government decided to constitute the SSG.

The commissioner told reporters that the City Guards would get training at par with the NSG commandos, who played a key role in flushing out terrorists in Mumbai.

The proposed force would be armed with sophisticated weapons to foil any terrorist attack in the city.

The notification for recruiting 2,967 City Guards personnel would be issued Dec 19. Residents of Hyderabad would be eligible for recruitment into the force.

To a query, he said the city police were prepared to deal with any terrorist strike. The city had witnessed three bomb blasts last year, killing over 50 people.

The decision to form the special force came in the light of central government's announcement to set up NSG branches in four metropolitan cities.

The state cabinet Saturday decided to constitute a special force - SSG - similar to NSG in terms of high benchmarks for recruitment and training. The decision to raise the elite force was taken as the state was exposed to risk along its nearly 1,000-km coastline.

The proposed force would be headed by an official of deputy inspector general (DIG) rank and would work under the overall supervision of the head of Greyhounds, the elite anti-Maoist force. There would be district and city guards as part of the special force.