No gadgets, no direction, no deployment. That's the fate of CRPF's CoBRA force
No gadgets, no direction, no deployment. That's the fate of CRPF's CoBRA force
This cobra has no fangs. And even though it has been trained to strike lethally, it is not even allowed to hiss.
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The fully trained and ready-to-be-deployed CoBRA (Combat Battalion for Resolute Action) force, which was raised on an urgent basis to deal with Naxals, is waiting for a green signal from the Ministry of Home Affairs (MHA). However, no go ahead is expected to come in the near future.
The urgency for the deployment of CoBRA can be gauged from the fact that the MHA clearly said that Naxal-affected areas are going to be its main focus instead of insurgency-hit Jammu & Kashmir (J&K).
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"Instead of the Valley, the focus for the para-military forces will now be the Naxal- affected areas and the northeastern states.
There will not be any force reduction in J&K but the extra forces which are being raised and readied will be deployed either in north-east or Naxal-hit regions," said a senior MHA official.
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Meanwhile, the CoBRA, whose 20 battalions were proposed to be raised on an urgent basis to tackle Naxals is not ready for action.
"So far two battalions have been raised (2,000 men) but deployment could take time as we are not ready yet with the necessary infrastructure to support the special action by the force," said a senior CRPF official, wishing anonymity.
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The CoBRA force was raised as a special unit having state-of-the-art technical support to eliminate Naxals in some of the densest forests in the country.
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"Naxals have the benefit of being better acquainted with the terrain where they can easily dodge the security forces.
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The plan was to equip the security forces with cutting edge technology in both urban and rural warfare.
Some of the standard equipment were like a digitised map of the terrain with satellite communication with Global Positioning System (GPS)," said the officer.
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However, so far no equipment have been procured and the Indian Space Research Organisation has not made any digitised map of the hostile terrains.
Meanwhile, the MHA has not slowed down the raising of the remaining battalions. "Four more battalions are under training and will be ready in an year," said an official spokesperson of the Central Reserve Police Force.
Naxal nightmare
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The CoBRA force is being raised with a total cost of Rs 1,389 crore but only Rs 491 crore is slotted for manpower training. The rest of the amount will be spent on creating infrastructure.
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The CoBRA commandos will be given special training to understand the topography of the areas in which they will operate.
The CRPF s also planning several specialised software and equipment to provide a 3D image of the operational terrain.
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It is also planned that the commandos will be trained to deal with Naxal influence in urban areas. Stress will also be laid on intelligence gathering as one of the prime tools before any operation.
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The commandos, while ensuring area dominance, will also be launching dedicated attacks on Naxal strongholds.
Also, concentrated attacks will be given priority over long-range attacks. The idea is to go, kill and return to the base.
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