I wonder whether people interested in internal security management in India could read this article from The Hindu(see link below). It is an outstanding piece indeed. Very unfortunate that the CRPF is doing a job for all of us without the requisite backing and preparation. I think people have no idea how serious the Maoist threat is and how unprepared we are to fight it with the current provisioning and training of the CRPF. There is so much similarity between the nature of threats the IPKF in Sri Lanks faced and that the CRPF faces today. Recalling our experience of fighting the LTTE as part of the IPKF, I can say the Indian Army suffered this situation in the first two weeks of the intense campaign for the capture of Jafna. Thereafter, the Indian Army learnt its lessons quickly and with a level of involvement up the chain got down to finding solutions. While the subsequent low intensity campaign went far better we could never come to terms of fighting the LTTE in the most optimum manner in its bastion, the Wani Jungle in the Mullaitvu area. Although one can write a treatise on this I think the CRPF needs to get a couple of old hands from the IPKF campaign to advise it on how to go about this onerous responsibility. The names which come to mind as the best advisers are some of our finest paratroopers - Maj Gen Dalvir Singh (10 SF), Lt Gen PC Katoch (1 SF) and Lt Gen HS Lidder (9 SF). There are many others I know who could do a great job training the CRPF; people like Col Shambhoo Deora, Brig Jude Cruz and a few others. I remember a particular example about Maj Gen (then Colonel) Dalvir Singh. Speaking to his men I learnt that they felt most secure moving in the jungles when they were under his direct command in operations. Why? Simply because he would set a compass bearing and start moving in that direction; if a bush came in the way he would go over the bush and never around it; he would crawl through undergrowth but never side step. That way his troops never encountered an IED because the LTTE knew exactly where a soldier would side step and the IED would be placed there. This article talks of snipers on tree tops. I recall how we countered this with the help of Rocket Launchers in air burst role and raking the trees at the high, mid and low level at the first instance of a contact. The LTTE thereafter always ran. I am not stating the obvious things about leadership and regimentation here; that made a world of a difference in the case of the Army. But we are being very unfair to the CRPF by making it undertake operations without adequate air logistics and even casevac provisions. thehindu/todays-paper/tp-opinion/the-central-reserve-police-mess/article6687922.ece?css=print
Posted on: Sun, 14 Dec 2014 17:02:47 +0000
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