The Central Reserve Police Force (CRPF) has announced the formation of a special CoBRA battalion for counter-terrorist operations in Jammu and Kashmir. This decision comes 17 years after the jungle warfare unit was established to combat Naxal insurgency. The new battalion, directed by Union Home Minister Amit Shah, will be deployed in forested areas of Jammu and Kashmir, including the Jammu region, where recent terrorist incidents have occurred. CoBRA units are known for their specialized jungle warfare and guerilla tactics training, and the new battalion will be equipped with modern weaponry, communication, and surveillance equipment.
CRPF DG K Durga Prasad said the terrorists were clean shaven and that "shows" that they were fidayeen attackers.
Scores of people, some armed with sticks, walked in the funeral cortege of a youth killed during a Durga idol immersion procession in Bahraich amid cries for justice from the family and others on Monday, as tension escalated with shops being burnt down and angry crowds out in the streets.
The ambitious plan to deploy such a large number of women personnel in most challenging combat theatres.
Four personnel were also injured in the Naxal attack and two of them were stated to be critical.
Rejecting suggestions that not following SOPs might have led to high casualties in Saturday's ambush by militants in Jammu and Kashmir's Pampore, the Central Reserve Police Force on Monday said all laid down procedures were "absolutely" adhered to by its personnel.
Seven CRPF men were killed on Wednesday and their weapons looted after Naxals carried out a deadly landmine blast on their vehicle in the jungles of the worst Naxal-affected Dantewada district of Chhattisgarh.
This is one of the biggest casualties suffered by the elite COBRA unit that undertakes special jungle warfare ops.
"It is certain that the information about their movement was leaked. Somewhere or at some stage this has happened. The boys were doing a surprise non-operational movement and hence were in mufti. We are looking into it," CRPF Director General K Durga Prasad said.
CRPF says army troopers only clicked selfies with the bodies of the slain terrorists and walked away with their weapons.
Senior Indian Police Service officer Archana Ramasundram was today appointed Director General of Sashastra Seema Bal, the first woman to head a paramilitary force.
CRPF DG says the pellet guns are the 'least-lethal' option available with the force.
Post K Durga Prasad's retirement as the last full-time chief of the Central Reserved Police Force on February 28, the Union home ministry had appointed Additional DG Sudeep Lakhtakia to hold the charge in "additional" capacity.
The paramilitary had cut down the use of these vehicles for anti-Naxal operations drastically to a 'bare minimum' after they were targeted in improvised explosive device blasts in the Left Wing Extremism-hit areas.
An injured jawan said around 10-12 Naxalites must have got killed in the 'befitting' retaliation by the CRPF contingent.
'Eeit ka jawab patthar se denge.' 'We will do whatever it takes to ensure that such a loss does not happen again.'
The modified version of pellet guns will have a "deflector", an attachment on the muzzle end to prevent the pellets from going up.
Bhatnagar is expected to take charge of the CRPF later this week as he is on an official assignment in Indonesia in the capacity of NCB DG.
Jeet Singh, the constable, talks about how his colleagues in the force work in the absence of medical facilities or pensions.
A day after killing seven policemen in an ambush in Chhattisgarh's Sukma district, the Naxals on Sunday allegedly set ablaze at least 17 vehicles engaged in mining work in insurgency-hit Kanker district, police said.
The central government had also sent a team of doctors to Kashmir Valley to treat youths injured due to firing by pellet guns.
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