The Assam police is going to raise a specialised force, which will be known as “Assam police rangers” to tackle militancy and alarming growth of Maoist in the state.
Informing that state police have also recruited 30 ex-Army personnel to train selected policemen, authoritative security sources told this newspaper that Assam police rangers would be made available only for specialised operations against militants.
Though, Assam police had one of such units of specialised forces known as “Special Operation Unit” but it came under serious criticism for its alleged controversial role in the “secret killings.”
The SOU, which was operating under the special branch of the Assam police, has now been dismantled in a phased manner. Indicating that Assam police rangers would be imparted all kinds of trainings to tackle any emergency situation, security sources said that training of APR has already started.
Asserting that training module for the rangers have been prepared by experts of Army and other commando forces, security sources said that necessity of specialised and committed forces was felt to follow up the specific intelligence sharing by various states. Refusing to divulge the location of their training centre set up on pattern of jungle warfare school, security sources said that idea is to send some selected policemen from all the districts for such training to enhance the capability of the state police force.
Admitting that state was largely relying on commandos, CRPF and Army for explicit operations, security sources said that idea of raising Assam police rangers was also aimed at reduce the involvement and reliability of the state on Army and paramilitary forces into counter-insurgency operations in the state.
The Assam police rangers would be stationed at Guwahati and operate under the instruction of special branch of the police, security sources said.