Bengaluru, Oct 17: Karnataka Home Minister Basavaraj Bommai on Thursday said the detention centre for foreign nationals coming up on the city's outskirts, will be operationalised soon.

The minister also said the Bengaluru-specific anti-terrorist squad (ATS) probably will be operational in November first week.

"There is a detention centre ready near Nelamangala, it needs to operationalised, we have discussed it and there will be no further delay in operationalising it," Bommai said.

Speaking to reporters here, he said the detention centre will be for foreign nationals involved in illegal activities, until they are deported.

Stating that there is already an ATS for Karnataka, the minister said, "our officers have been recommending for Bengaluru-specific ATS for a long time keeping in mind the volume of population, the influx, also intelligence and NIA inputs."

"Bengaluru-specific ATS is necessary, therefore the government has decided to have one Bengaluru specific ATS..probably it will be operational in the first week of November," he said, adding that it will work in coordination with state ATS and will be directly involved in city specific operations.

NIA officials recently said from 2014 to 2018, the Jamaat-ul-Mujahideen Bangladesh (JMB) had set up 20-22 hideouts in Bengaluru and tried to spread its bases in South India.

On Bangladeshi immigrants in the state and how they could be identified as most of them have Aadhaar and PAN cards and claim to be from the country's north east, Bommai said "There is an issue on hand, that is why I have asked my senior officials to find solution, they are going to do it."

Bommai had recently said the BJP government in Karnataka was mulling introducing the National Register ofCitizens (NRC) in the State.

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Bengaluru (PTI): Four passengers who arrived from Bangkok at Kempegowda International Airport here were arrested with hydroponic ganja valued at over Rs 21.5 crore in two separate cases, officials said on Saturday.

They were intercepted at Terminal 2 of the airport on May 1, they added.

In the first case, Bengaluru Customs said in a post on ‘X’ that three passengers arriving from Bangkok were intercepted, and 52.68 kg of hydroponic ganja, valued at Rs 18.43 crore, was seized from their baggage.

In a separate case on the same day, another passenger arriving from Bangkok was intercepted, and 9 kg of hydroponic ganja, valued at Rs 3.15 crore, was seized from his baggage.

In both cases, the accused, whose identities have not been disclosed, were arrested under the Narcotic Drugs and Psychotropic Substances (NDPS) Act, officials added.