Amit Shah asks NSG to complete operations at a faster pace
Shubhadeep Choudhury
Tribune News Service
Kolkata, March 1
Union Home Minister Amit Shah on Sunday asked the National Security Guard (NSG), the elite commando force raised for engaging terror groups, to focus on reducing the time taken for completing an operation.
While inaugurating the 29 Special Composite Group complex of the NSG at Rajarhat in Kolkata, Shah said the military strategy of the NSG, the material used by its personnel and the priority taught to the commandos during training must all be changed to enable the commandos to finish a job at a faster pace.
Shah said he had seen two anti-terror operations—the Akshardham temple incident of 2002 and the 2008 Mumbai attack —from very close quarters as he was the then home minister of Gujarat.
When terrorists strike an important target, they know that they will perish in the process and they mentally prepare themselves for the eventuality, Shah said.
The Union Home Minister said that terrorists participating in such hits want to lengthen the timespan of their engagement with security forces so that people take note of the hit and feel scared.
“Only if the attack is brought to end quickly, it will mean defeat for the terrorists and victory for us,” Shah said.
While the Mumbai attack lasted for four days before the perpetrators were neutralised by NSG, the Akshardham temple siege was stopped by NSG after 24 hours.
Shah also said that with the surgical strike inside Pakistan, carried out by the Army in 2016, and the 2019 strike by the IAF on Pakistani terror camps in Balakot, India had carved a place for itself alongside USA and Israel, two countries known for going after their enemies even on foreign soil.
When Shah on Sunday arrived in the city on a day-long visit, opposition parties protested against the contentious Citizenship Amendment Act and raised ‘Go back’ slogans outside the airport.
Shah was greeted by the West Bengal BJP leadership, led by state party president Dilip Ghosh.
Hundreds of protesters of the Left Front and Congress, holding black flags and anti-CAA posters, demonstrated outside gate number 1 of Netaji Subhash Chandra Bose International Airport.
Mood of Bengal!
People of Kolkata came out on the street with Black Flag, balloons and Placards in protest of the Amit Shah’s visit to #Kolkata. #GoBackAmitShah pic.twitter.com/QXK7e5XtI9— CPI(M) WEST BENGAL (@CPIM_WESTBENGAL) March 1, 2020
Police had put up a barricade to prevent them from crossing over to the entrance of the airport. — with PTI
