Published 20:38 IST, September 16th 2018
Trained Bank Guards To Take On Terrorists-Turned-Bank-Looters In The Valley
As the incidents of bank robberies in Kashmir especially in south Kashmir by the armed terrorists have increased in the recent past, the army has come forward to provide specialized training to the bank guards
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Facing a financial crunch, the terrorist outfits operative in Kashmir valley have turned to looters as they now resort to bank robberies- but not anymore as the army had decided to train the bank guards in handling and operating weapons. As the incidents of bank robberies in Kashmir especially in south Kashmir by the armed terrorists have increased in the recent past, the army has come forward to provide specialized training to the bank guards in the handling of the weapons.
“This is the part 2 of the capsule course that we are holding today, earlier also a similar course was held for the bank guards”, an army spokesman said.
The part two of the firing practice capsule course for the bank guards of various public and private sector banks of south Kashmir’s Anantnag district was today conducted at Army Camp Anantnag High Ground, the previous camp was held at the same place on August 12, 2018. Around 20 guards from various public and private sector banks from across Anantnag district took part in the training capsule. The Guards were given the opportunity to fire at Fixed targets with AK 47 and INSAS assault rifles at the Army’s firing range.
“The firing practice was conducted with the aim to instill confidence in the bank security guards to react to any adverse situation if it arises during discharging their duties, apart from improving their firing skills.
Robberies of the bank by armed terrorism in South Kashmir had in the recent past become a cause of concern for the security agencies and now they feel that after the bank security guards are provided better training such incidents would come down.
“As they were not properly trained in the past, the bank guards were not able to give a fight to the terrorists, but with such capsule courses these guards get proper training and also a level of confidence, so we are hopeful that they can fight the terrorists,” the spokesman said.
Sources say that with the tightening of the nose against the terror funding from various channels, terror outfits in the Kashmir valley were facing an acute shortage of funds and that is the reason that the terrorists had resorted to looting the banks.
“You might have seen in the recent past the National Investigation Agency (NIA) has tightened its nose against the terror funding and hence they are facing an acute financial crisis, that is why we have seen a recent spike in the cases of bank robberies by these armed terrorists” a senior NIA officer told Republic.
He said that the agency is hopeful that with better-trained bank security guards the incidents of bank robberies would come down. Meanwhile, the army says that it would continue to provide better training to the bank guards and similar capsule courses would be conducted in other districts of the Kashmir valley in the days to come.
20:09 IST, September 16th 2018