Ajmal Amir Kasab, the lone surviving terrorist of the 26/11 Mumbai attacks, is now being guarded 24x7 by as many as 75 commandos at any given time in Mumbai’s Arthur Road jail. These commandos are personnel from the Indo-Tibetan Border Police (ITBP), the paramilitary force that guards the President and Vice-President of India in addition to over a dozen high-profile dignitaries.

While Mumbai Police continues to handle the overall security of the prison, performing duties like frisking, the ITBP men have been mandated with a single-point task: guarding Kasab exclusively. The Anda Cell (egg-shaped cell) that houses Kasab is now surrounded by close to four dozen ITBP men at all times. The rest of the men guard the prison’s outer periphery and other key locations.

The ITBP, too, has sent some of its best personnel on this assignment, despite the fact that the force is finding itself in a bit of a quandary over the first-of-its-kind experience of having to guard a terrorist lodged inside a high-security prison cell. “Our men are used to guarding high-profile VIPs. This is a unique assignment for us and will be a good learning experience,” an ITBP official said. Since its men already guard the Tihar Jail in Delhi, the force has some prior experience of securing prisons against terror strikes at high-profile inmates.

Anticipating all kinds of eventualities in Mumbai, the 300-odd ITBP men are being deployed in eight-hour shifts in the prison and are carrying sophisticated weaponry and communication equipment

“The personnel who have gone to Mumbai have had extensive commando training at the ITBP Academy in Mussorie. They have been trained in counter-insurgency operations and VIP security duties at an altitude of over 6,000 feet,” the official said.

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