Tag: CRPF

Police official shoots senior dead at Ranchi: Poor command structure, long tenures in conflict zones cause stress, says expert.

Source – firstpost.com

A police constable on Monday shot dead his company commander and killed himself at Ranchi. Another constable, who received bullet injuries in the firing, has been hospitalised.

This incident comes less than a week after another case of fratricide at Chhattisgarh’s Narayanpur.

In Ranchi, constable Vikram Rajware shot dead his superior, Mela Ram Kurre, and during the firing, constable Venudhar Guru sustained a bullet injury in his thigh. Guru has now been hospitalised. The incident occurred at 6.30 am on Monday, according to a police source. All three belong to 1066 Company of the Chhattisgarh’s State Police Force (SPF), and were deployed in Jharkhand for the ongoing Assembly election.

“There was an altercation between the jawan and the commander in the morning, and after that, the jawan fired at his commander. However, the reason for this altercation is still unknown,” the source said.

The 1066 company of the Chhattisgarh SPF had earlier been stationed at Khelgaon Stadium in Ranchi for a night halt and was on its way to Hazaribag for the third phase of Jharkhand Assembly election.

Initially, it was rumoured that the commander and the jawans belong to the CRPF. However, the CRPF headquarters clarified, “They don’t belong to CRPF. The company belongs to Chhattisgarh SPF and is deployed for the Jharkhand Assembly election.” CRPF headquarters has clarified.

In another incident on Monday at Geedam in Naxal-affected Dantewada, a CRPF jawan committed suicide. The reason could not be ascertained.

Less than a week ago, an Indo-Tibetan Border Police (ITBP) jawan shot dead four of his colleagues with an AK-47 rifle and killed himself at Kadena in Narayanpur district. Two other jawans were seriously injured in the incident.

Narayanpur, located close to the Maharashtra border, is a hotbed of Left-Wing Extremism (LWE). Similarly, 18 out of 24 districts in Jharkhand are LWE-affected.

According to data tabled in the Rajya Sabha this year, over 930 police personnel, including those from the paramilitary forces, committed suicide in the last five years. Between 2016 and 2018, 307 paramilitary personnel committed suicide. In the Central Armed Police Forces (CAPF), between 2012 and 2015, the highest number of suicides (149) was reported by the CRPF.

Anil Kamboj, counter-terrorism analyst, said, “There’s definitely a rise in such kind of incidents. The foremost reasons are excessive stress and poor command control. There’s a growing lack of communication between the superiors and the subordinate staff members, which results in severe frustration – even to the extent of jawans going into depression — which is alarming. Regular communication helps ease frustration, but this is not seen to be happening in many cases.”

Other factors include an increase in workload with the same or lower personnel strength, long periods of deployment in conflict zones, frequent movement of troops from one conflict zone to another without a break, and staying away from home for longer periods.

Kamboj added, “While the use of mobile phones is no doubt a boon, it also heightens stress. Now, security personnel are almost constantly in touch with their family members, but cannot help them in day-to-day problems. Getting leave is not easy. This has aggravated stress among security personnel posted in remote locations.”

The Ministry of Home Affairs says occupational hazards such as long tenures of deployment in difficult areas are among the reasons behind the suicides. It also cites domestic issues, marital discord and financial problems as other reasons.

Without doubt, the present situation is alarming, and has a direct impact on security operations.

A possible outcome of impulsive actions among security forces can also be incidents like the encounter in Chhattisgarh’s Sarkeguda in 2012. A judicial inquiry commission recently found that 17 villagers killed in the encounter were not Naxals. The commission said that the forces fired at the villagers in “panic” after hearing a noise in the distance.

MHA confers Utkrisht Seva Padak to Jharkhand CRPF IG

Source: dailypioneer.com

Ministry of Home Affairs (MHA) has accorded Utkrisht Seva Padak to Jharkhand CRPF IG Sanjay Anand Lathkar.  The MHA works on its CRPF officials for its two most coveted medals called by its Hindi version Ati Utkrisht Seva Padak and Utkrisht Seva Padak said Commandant of 134 battalion of CRPF, A D Sharma who said a signal to this effect that IG Lathkar is a recipient of Utkrisht Seva Padak  has reached CRPF battalions across the country from the Directorate General office of CRPF.

Lathkar has in his kitty 60 such varied recognitions and appreciations and among the 60 is one Mahatma Gandhi Shanti Samman Puraskar that was bestowed upon him by the Maharashtra Minority Commission.

Lathkar,  was a bit hesitant to share his mantra of success that brings him strings of laurels finally said that he has no ‘feudal mentality’.

He said, “I take my ground staff into confidence and gives them ears to their suggestions and opinions.  Repose trust in your personnel.

 Have faith in them and see they deliver better and  fast.  This is how you draw the best of every officials. And, when they do good recognition does not lag behind. It comes in just 10 days time.”

The 1995 batch IPS officer of Jharkhand cadre is on deputation in CRPF and has served in Bihar & Maharashtra as well.

On CRPF’s tackling of extremism here Lathkar said, “ Extremists are out for their survival. Their very existence is at peril.

 They indulge in aberrations just to remind that they are around but their teeth have gone.”

He said, “Jharkhand has seen four Lok Sabha elections but the latest one in 2019 has been the most peaceful one in terms of extremists’ violence, which has gone down quite considerably.”

“Maoists cannot fight us straight way. They torch vehicles and equipment of contractors and civilians like a few incidents of arson by them in Latehar district and they know also that time for them is running out and security forces will neutralize them,” reiterated the IG.

One CRPF jawan killed in IED blast triggered by Naxals in Chhattisgarh’s Bastar district

Source: firstpost.com

Raipur: A CRPF jawan was killed in an improvised explosive device (IED) blast triggered by Naxals in Bastar district of Chhattisgarh on Wednesday, officials said.

The blast took place around 6 am near a camp of 195th battalion of the Central Reserve Police Force (CRPF) at Pushpal in Bastar when one of its patrolling teams was returning after an anti-Naxal operation, a senior police officer told PTI.

The force had launched the operation on Tuesday night in the forests along the border of Bastar and Dantewada districts, he said.

A constable-rank jawan, Raushan Kumar (23), a native of Bihar’s Nalanda district, was killed in the blast. It was triggered as he accidentally stepped on the IED when the team was passing through a road construction site near Bodli village, the officer said.

The constable’s body was taken to the Pushpal camp from where it will be shifted to his battalion headquarters in Dantewada’s Barsoor, he said.

A search operation is underway in the area where the blast took place, he said.

How one phone call busted a Naxal operation in Bihar

Source: livemint.com

NEW DELHI: As floods knifed through Bihar and forces scrambled to aid rescue operations in the state, a telephone call on the afternoon of 22 July in the state’s Bodh Gaya district changed the order of the day: Naxals had infiltrated into the area and had orders to carry out a big operation against security forces.

It was that phone call which ultimately led to one of the biggest anti-Naxal operations in the area in recent years, on Thursday afternoon, leading to the Naxal camp being wiped out by security forces.

From that day on — even as the Central Reserve Police Force’s (CRPF) intelligence wing began to scramble for inputs, which came in abundance – even though it was business as usual, forces were sworn to complete secrecy over the upcoming operation.

“Intelligence Inputs by sources developed by CPRF had been pouring in since 22 July about presence of a Maoist squad in this area and therefore an operation was planned after corroboration of inputs with the assistant superintendent of police (ASP) of Operation in Gaya and Aurangabad, along with a combined team of CoBRA (Commando Battalion for Resolute Action) and the CRPF,” said a senior CRPF official, seeking anonymity.

With the Naxals’ new commander Basavraj already having lost one of his key men Madkam Hidma to an encounter earlier this week, the armed cadre of the Naxals had come prepped to inflict maximum damage, from neighbouring Chattisgarh.

“All these teams were inducted from different routes with utmost deception avoiding all possibilities that could have alerted the vigilant Maoists of our plan. Their activities in the area have been persistently tracked and monitored through recent operations,” the official quoted above added.

While tactical action teams of Indian security forces had been inducted in complete secrecy, amid incessant rains, they were stationed at the respective locations at the break of dawn on Thursday.

“The CoBRA Strike came in direct confrontation with the Maoist sentry stationed few meters away from a temporary makeshift camp. Although the Maoist sentry emptied his rifle magazine, trying to push back the advancing Commandos, they (commandos) tactfully managed to dodge his bullets, quickly flanking and encircling this temporary camp meanwhile engaging in retaliatory fire,” said another senior security force official, requesting anonymity.

By the afternoon of Thursday, a full gun battle had been raging between the security forces and Naxals in the area of Sathnadia Nallah of Chakkarbandha forest in Bodh Gaya.

“An Exchange of Fire erupted between the CoBRA Commandos and CPI Maoist cadres at approximately 12:30pm on Thursday afternoon near Chakkarbandha forest. After half hour of gun battle, Cobra commandos managed to overrun the camp of the Maoists without any harm or loss on their (CoBRA) side. Five IEDs (improvised explosive devices) were planted in the vicinity of this camp, which were safely diffused by troops,” said the CRPF official.

6 killed, 43 injured as bus falls into gorge in Jharkhand

Source: indiatoday.in

At least six people were killed and 43 injured after a bus skidded off the road and fell into a gorge in Anuraj Ghati in Garhwa district of Jharkhand on Tuesday.

The accident took place around 3.30 am, they said. CRPF jawans recovered the bodies of six people and rescued 43 passengers by entering the ill-fated bus through the windows, Superintendent of Police Shivani Tiwari told PTI.

While three of the injured were referred to the Rajendra Institute of Medical Sciences in Ranchi, the rest were admitted to a local hospital, the SP said. The bus was heading to Garhwa, about 140 km from state capital Ranchi, from Ambikapur in Chhattisgarh, she said.

Earlier on June 10, a Patna-bound bus had hit an iron-laden stationary trailer-truck in Jharkhand’s Hazaribagh district.

The accident had taken place at dawn near Danua-Bhanua area under Chouparan Police Station limits, when the bus crashed into the trailer-truck from behind.

Eight persons had died on the spot, while three others succumbed to injuries in the hospital. The bus was travelling to Masauree in Patna district from Ranchi. Jharkhand Chief Minister Raghubar Das had expressed grief over the deaths and wished a speedy recovery to the injured.