BSF Offers Counter-Insurgency Training to Commandos
Dated 27/1/2007
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Border Security Force (BSF) in Madhya Pradesh is training 11 commando teams in insurgency related combat techniques.
Violence by the Maoists, known locally as Naxalites, in several states across the country has been identified as the most serious challenge to national security.
The training, which has been organised in the State's Tekanpur District, was aimed at developing a strong internal security force to combat insurgency in various parts of the country.
"There are many states which are already dealing with insurgency. States like Tamil Nadu, Andhra Pradesh, Punjab, Jharkhand and Chhattisgarh. These states need such forces and so we want to promote it. Our training creates a base for the commandoes carrying out small team operations through various competitions. We are trying to instill feeling among the state police so that they take them and can give high level training specific to their needs later," said BSF Deputy Director Brigadier S. C. Verma.
States like Andhra Pradesh, Chhattisgarh, Jharkhand and Bihar are some of the worst-affected states and have some of the lowest ratios of police to population.
In many states, private armies and vigilante groups, often government-sponsored, have sprung up to counter the Maoists.
Central Government had recently pulled the affected states together to coordinate their response to the Naxal menace. It says it will combine improved policing and socio-economic measures to defuse grievances that fuel the Maoist cause.
Maoist insurgents claim they are fighting for the rights of millions of poor peasants, labourers and landless tribals living in forests. The rebels operate in at least 13 of 29 states.
But analysts say this guerrilla war, waged mostly from the forests of central and eastern India, now poses major threat to internal security.
A human rights group said this week that 749 people had been killed in Maoist violence last year, including 135 security personnel and 285 civilians.
