For the first time in its three decade-old history, the countrys elite counter-terror force NSG has begun training its commandos in undertaking precision hostage rescue missions in jungles keeping in view emerging Naxalite tactics aimed at capturing high-value targets. The federal contingency force, which trains everyday to counter any terrorist act emerging in urban areas, has brought together a team of its chosen black cat commandos to test their nerves and hone skills in this domain which has largely been an operations ground for central paramilitary and state police forces. Strategic security planners said Naxal violence incidents in the past like the 2013 Darbha Ghati killings of political leaders in Chhattisgarh and abduction of key government officials like Malkangiri (Odisha) Collector Vineel Krishna and his Sukma counterpart Alex Paul Menon has brought to the fore an urgent requirement to prepare a Special Squad of commandos who can undertake hostile missions to secure the captured and end the crisis perpetrated by the Maoists. In order to achieve these objectives, the National Security Guard (NSG) under its new Director General J N Choudhury has prepared a blueprint to train a special forces team in this task. The Force Commanders of the elite force who have earlier in their careers operated in such non-urban areas have been tasked with the training of the new squad. NSG commanders, according to a blueprint prepared in this context, are now training the black cats to intervene in such a situation by various methods like air insertion through helicopters, silent landing of commando teams on para-gliders or storming of a hideout in dense jungles by camouflaged land movements aided by precise intelligence of the geography and inhabitants of the area.
Posted on: Sun, 07 Sep 2014 10:02:14 +0000