NEW DELHI : The NSG, which guards some of the top ‘Z+’ category of protectees, has now brought its VVIPs under an enhanced security shield against explosives and bomb explosions while they travel across the country.
The elite VVIP protection force has decided to send an advance team of National Security Guard bomb experts before the VVIPs tour and the mobile commando squad travelling with the dignitaries will also have portable bomb detection kits with them.
The decision was taken in the aftermath of multiple low-intensity blasts that had rocked the rally venue of Gujarat Chief Minister Narendra Modi in Patna last year.
Modi is a ‘Z+’ category protectee of the NSG and is guarded by close to 30 ‘black cat’ commandos of the NSG at any given point of time.
Sources privy to the development told PTI that taking cue from the Patna blasts incident and in view of the forthcoming general elections where political leaders and Chief Ministers would be moving across the country, a new protocol has been devised.
According to the new procedure, the NSG would ensure that the local police deploys adequate measures to sanitise the rally or any “public congregation venue” which is supposed to be attended by the VVIP under its security umbrella.
The counter-terror force has also decided to arm its commando squads, travelling with the VVIP, with a portable “explosives detection kit” which can be deployed quickly to detect and test any kind of chemical explosives or bombs.
Till now, sources said, the NSG was adept at securing its protectee in case of a proximate attack on the VVIP.
“But after the explosions in Patna last year, no chances could be taken and hence the new protocols mandate protecting the VVIP from an attack carried out through bombs,” the sources said.
This, sources said, could only be done by sanitising the venue neatly by deploying bomb detection teams and sniffer dogs.
The NSG has also written to state Governments that it would be happy to train its men and dog handlers in these specialised tasks at its famed bomb data centre near Delhi.
While the advance liaison teams of the elite force would not only ensure foolproof anti-sabotage checks at the proposed public rally venues, in case of an emergency the mobile bomb detection kit could be deployed by the commandos themselves.
The NSG guards some of the most important people in the public and political sphere which includes BJP patriarch L K Advani, Chief Ministers of Tamil Nadu (J Jayalalithaa), Uttar Pradesh (Akhilesh Yadav), Chhattisgarh (Raman Singh), Assam (Tarun Gogoi) former UP CM and BSP chief Mayawati, central Minister Farooq Abdullah, BJP President Rajnath Singh and DMK chief K Karunanidhi, among others. (AGENCIES)
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