BJP diving people on caste and religious lines: SP on opening of ATS unit in Deoband

New Delhi, 19 Aug 2021 [Fik/News Sources]: The Uttar Pradesh government has decided to a unit of the Anti-Terrorist Squad (ATS) in Deoband, the town known for the madrassa called Darul Uloom Deoband. Similar units will also be built Meerut, Indo-Nepal border, Bahraich, Shravasti etc too.

Officers of the Uttar Pradesh government linked the proposed unit in Deoband with the rise of Taliban in Afghanistan. ”Amid the Taliban’s savagery, here is a piece of news from UP. Yogi Ji has decided to open a commando training centre in Deoband,” CM Yogi Adityanath’s media advisor Shalabh Mani Tripathi in a tweet. He added over half-a-dozen ATS officers selected from across the state would be deputed there, he said, adding that the decision was “causing pain” to “those protecting terrorists”.

Speaking to The Indian Express, UP ADG (Law and Order) Prashant Kumar Deoband is “a strategic place from every angle”, and a potential target “as it is not like no one can enter Deoband”. “The decision to start a unit in Deoband is neither to tease nor bother anyone.”

Commenting on the issue, Samajwadi Party spokesman Vivek Silas said, “The BJP is doing nothing except politics of polarisation and dividing people on caste and religious lines.”