Daijiworld Media Network - Bengaluru 

Bengaluru, Oct 1: With National Investigation Agency (NIA) suspicious that there are at least 20 to 22 terrorist groups active in Bengaluru, an Anti Terror Squad (ATS) specific to Bengaluru will start functioning from November 1. 

Karnataka home minister Basavaraj Bommai told media on Tuesday that the decision to set up ATS was made following the arrest of a number of Jamat-e-Mujahideen Bangladesh (JMB) cadres in and around Bengaluru. Explosives and other incriminating materials were seized from them. 

The NIA probe helped in busting training programmes for JMB cadres held in Krishnagiri hills. The probe revealed that two terrorists responsible for the October 2, 2014 bomb blasts in Burdwan in West Bengal were hiding in Bengaluru and training cadres.

ATS and NIA will collaborate and comb secluded areas where terror planning and training is likely to happen. 

With cyber-related financial frauds and drug peddling cases on rise, a cyber security and psychotropic drug control cell will be set up at the offices of all deputy commissioners of police, Bommai added. 

While the Bengaluru police commissioner has been asked to make vigilance in the city stricter, security in crowded places such as bus stands, railway stations, malls will be enhanced, the home minister said.