CENTRAL RESERVE POLICE
FORCE
Staunch Sentinels
CRPF today is the largest
Paramilitary Force in the country with the strength of almost 230 Bns. The
total strength of the force today is approx 2.9 lakh and it is deployed all
over the country from Kashmir in the north to Trivandrum in the south,
Gandhinagar in the West to Manipur in the East. This force, which was raised in
the year 1931, has now been designated as the main counter insurgency force for
the country. This mandate was given in the report filed by the Group of Ministers
on National Security after the Kargil war incident.
Deployment
CRPF is today deployed in
3 major operational theatres of the country namely Jammu and Kashmir, North-
East and the Left Wing Extremism- affected areas. The force has a deployment of
almost 60 Bns in J&K, 35 Bns in NE and almost 75 Bns in the LWE- affected
areas.
There are a number of
other States also where CRPF is deployed namely Haryana, Punjab, Jammu &
Kashmir, Rajasthan, Gujarat, Maharashtra, Karnataka, Kerala, Tamil Nadu, Uttar
Pradesh etc.
Special Forces
RAF - CRPF was initially raised to counter the varied law and
order situations arising in the country. A specialized force called the Rapid
Action Force (RAF) was thereafter raised in the year 1992 to deal with rioting
and other grave law and order problems. Today there are 10 Bns of RAF located
at places, which have traditionally faced law and order problems in the past.
This Force has rendered
invaluable service during the 1993 floods in Delhi, 1994 floods in Surat, 2001
Earthquake in Gujarat, 2004 Tsunami in South India. In recognition of all such efforts, this
force was decorated with the President’s Colour’s in the year 2003.
It has also proved its
competence on a global level also by regularly sending specially trained
contingents of Female Formed Police Units to Liberia since 2007 and also Male
Formed Police Units to Liberia since 2009.
CoBRA - A specialized Commando Force was raised in the year 2008
and was named Commando Battalion for Resolute Action. This is a specialized
commando force whose expertise is in conducting stealth jungle operations and
has the capacity to stay covertly inside jungles and survive on their own for
more than a week. The skill-set of personnel of all the 10 Bns have been honed
by getting them trained in the Counter Insurgency and Jungle Warfare School (CIJWS)
at Vairengte, Mizoram. They have also
been given intensive anti-naxal training to counter the strategy and the
designs of the naxals by getting them trained with the Greyhounds force of AP and
also conducting joint operations with them.
Since their inception, they have proved their worth by apprehending over
a thousand naxals and insurgents and
neutralizing almost a hundred such anti-nationals.
This Force is presently
much in demand by the different States and nine of its Bns are currently
deployed in the LWE area whereas one of its Battalion is conducting
anti-insurgent operations in Assam.
Hot Springs Incident
After
the occupation of Tibet by China wherein Dalai Lama was forced to flee Tibet,
the Indian Government sent two Coys of
CRPF to Ladakh to guard its borders. 10
outposts were established deep inside territory of Ladakh to prevent any
Chinese aggression and act as a first- sound post for the Army
authorities. At that point of time there
were no roads or any communication link.
However, on 21st October 1959, twenty CRPF personnel who were
out patrolling in Hot Springs area came under severe attack from the Chinese
troops without any provocation. 10 CRPF
personnel were killled immediately whereas the others fought bravely and were
able to repulse the attack for quite some time.
This act of the Chinese caused widespread resentment in the country and
the Indian Government decided to salute the bravery of these martyred CRPF
personnel by declaring 21st October as a ‘Police Commemoration Day’. Every year on this day police forces all over
the country pay homage to the martyred police personnel who have made the
supreme sacrifice of laying down their lives for the cause of bringing peace
and order to their motherland.
A
police contingent is sent every year to this location at Hot Springs in Ladakh
where a memorial service is held on this day at the Martyr’s column, which has
been erected at the site of the incident.
Foreign Missions
CRPF
first participated in the IPKF Mission in Sri Lanka in the year 1987-89. It has subsequently participated in the UN
Mission in Cambodia (1991-93), UN Mission in Haiti (1994-95), UN Mission in
East Africa, Somalia and Mozambique (2000-05), UN Mission in Kosovo (2000-05 ),
Female Police Unit in Liberia (2007 onwards), Male Police Unit in Liberia (2009
onwards).
Mahila Battalion
The
Mahila Battalion was first formed in the year 1986. It has come a long way since then and has proved
its worth in a number of sensitive situations.
Today there are three Mahila Bns and there is a proposal to raise
another Mahila Bn in the near future also.
The
brave Female officers of CRPF have done their service proud with Mahila
Constable Kamlesh Kumari being awarded the highest peace-time Gallantry Award Ashok Chakra for her act of bravery
in defending the Parliament in terrorist attack on 13th December,
2002. Constable Bimla Devi was conferred
the Sena
Medal for recovering a large quantity of explosives on 31st
August, 1988 at Jaffna where she was posted as a part of Indian Peace Keeping
Force. Similarly AC Smt. Santosh Devi was awarded the President’s Police Medal for
Gallantry in the year 2002 for bravely defending the holy Ayodhaya shrine
against the militants.
Decorations
This force whose main task earlier was
to control law and order in the country has now graduated to become the main
counter insurgency force in the country. It has proved its worth in all the major
disturbed theatres of the country and has won laurels for its performance in J
& K, in all States of North East and also while controlling the naxal
menace in the LWE affected states. Since its inception the force has been the
proud recipient of various decorations as the George Cross Kings Police Medal
for Gallantry, Ashok Chakra, Veer Chakra, Shaurya Chakra, Padma Shri and other
medals for gallantry. With a strong
thrust on anti-naxal operations in the last three years, this force has done
exceedingly well and is the proud recipient of 04 Shaurya Chakra’s, 18 PPMGs,
178 PMGs in last two and a half years only (2011 – 13).
Operations
The
main thrust of operations as on date is in the three major theatres of Jammu
& Kashmir, North East and LWE areas.
There are 60 Bns of CRPF deployed in J&K, 35 Bns in North East and
75 Bns in LWE areas.
In
Jammu & Kashmir, CRPF has been fighting shoulder to shoulder with J&K
Police and Army. Very good intelligence
based joint-operations have been conducted and a number of militants and leaders
of banned outfits have either been apprehended or neutralized. A significant amount of arms and ammunition
have also been recovered in the process.
There is excellent coordination with all different agencies in J & K
and it is a result of this good synergy that CRPF is much in demand in the
State of J&K and is today the preferred force for anti-insurgency
operations.
In
North East, CRPF is deployed in all the Seven sister States and has done
commendable work in curbing the insurgent activity herein. Over 200 insurgents have been arrested in the
current year and quite a few have also been neutralized. There has also been substantial recovery of
arms and ammunition and with the pressure mounted by security forces, a number of insurgents have also surrendered
in the process.
The
LWE poses the maximum challenge to the security scenario of the country and that
is why even the Prime Minister of India dubbed it as the number one internal
security problem facing the country today.
CRPF which is deployed in all the LWE States is the main bulwark for
conducting anti-naxal operations in these States and is definitely the most
preferred Central Armed Police Force by the different States for conducting
joint operations. The CRPF presently along with specialized CoBRA Forces have
launched aggressive operations in remote and inaccessible areas by using
excellent technology support and have achieved excellent results.
The
CRPF did suffer setbacks in Chattisgarh in the year 2010 at Chintalnar where it
lost 75 of its personnel and once again at Dhaudai where it lost 27 of its
personnel within a time gap of three months.
However, the force was quick to learn its lessons - laid a great amount
of emphasis on training, provided excellent leadership by posting operationally
‘A’ class officers in all these areas and showed an excellent learning curve
whereby on the one hand they were able to inflict heavy losses on the naxals,
ensured large amount of apprehensions and on the other hand they started moving
tactically, using the best available technology support and reduced their
losses in a major way.
The
CRPF personnel have in the last two years moved into so called inaccessible liberated areas and launched major
anti-naxal operations in Maad area and southern Bijapur of Chhattisgarh, in
cut-off area of Odisha, Bhimbandh and Chakrabandha in Bihar and Saranda, Budha-pahar
and Latehar areas of Jharkhand. All
these have led to an increase in the number of naxals apprehended / neutralized
and also an increase in the number of encounters with the naxals. As a result
of this, the recruitment amongst the naxals has gone down, the number of
reported training camps have reduced and their holding of Jan Adalats has also gone down.
Intelligence sources have indicated that the senior naxal leadership of
the Maoists is concerned about the regular ingress of security forces in their
safe-havens, the constant attrition in the naxal cadres and the losses which
the security forces have inflicted on them in the last one and half years.
Training
A
great emphasis has been laid on training the CRPF personnel for anti-insurgency
and anti-naxal operations by opening new specialized schools and also by
opening new training centres at different places.
A
new Institute
of IED Management has been opened at Pune, which provides complete information
about the different kind of IEDs that are being used by naxals in different
theatres to all the CRPF personnel so that this threat can be neutralized in a
major way. It is to be kept in mind that since the firepower and training of
the security forces has become much better in the last couple of years, the
naxals have been resorting to IED in a major way to inflict damage on the
security forces.
A
National
Institute of Jungle Craft has also started functioning at Belgaum,
Karnataka which has been approved by MHA.
The specialized training of the CoBRA Force is held here to give them
the cutting edge in their anti-naxal operations. The use of latest weaponry as
UBGL, MGL and CGRL has been incorporated and emphasis has been laid on use of
latest technology in navigation as GPS and ensuring various kinds of
surveillance methods. There is great emphasis in this school on employing the
right kind of field craft and tactics and preparing the specialized CoBRA Force
for long duration stealth operations in the remote jungles for periods ranging
from 7-10 days.
A
Dog
Breeding & Training School has also been opened at Taralu near
Bangalore where specialized dogs as Labradors, German Shepherds and Belgian
Malinois are being trained to track the movement of naxals and to sniff-out explosives
from jungle tracks and other areas wherein the security forces move. The school
has been very successful and the canines have been providing invaluable support
to the security forces while conducting operations inside deep jungles.
A
new National
Academy of Public Order Management has also been opened at Meerut, UP
wherein the RAF personnel are being trained to scientifically deal with law
& order situations by using latest techniques in non-lethal weapons.
CONCLUSION
The CRPF has come a long way from merely dealing
with law & order situations to being the lead force for counter-insurgency
and anti-naxal operations in the country.
The force personnel have graduated from the use of mere lathis and cane-shields
in controlling law & order situations to using UBGL, CGRL and GPS and other
related devices while conducting operations.
There is great emphasis on specialized training and this is what is
helping the force to achieve laurels in different theatres in the country
today. The force is young, has good
leadership and with excellent firepower and training is today well equipped to
serve the country in an effective and professional manner.
Pankaj Kumar Singh IPS
IG Operations, CRPF
( 2137 words)
( Published in Defence and Security Alert, July 2013, pages 40- 44 )
Pankaj Kumar Singh
IPS
IG Operations, CRPF
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