Centre mulls use of NSG commandos in anti-militancy ops in Kashmir

Sanjeev Pargal
JAMMU, Apr 21: The Central Government has been mulling the selective use of National Security Guards (NSG) in some of the anti-militancy operations in the Kashmir valley with a view to avoid collateral damage and ensure that the militants don’t manage to escape. For the purpose, Army, para-military forces and Jammu and Kashmir Police  are being taken on board by the Centre.
Few months back, the NSG had trained commandos of Special Operations Group (SOG) of Jammu and Kashmir Police (JKP) at its Manesar headquarters near Gurgaon for anti-militancy operations.
Sources told the Excelsior that the Centre was concerned about the collateral damage including loss of eight civilian lives this month in just two anti-militancy operations in South Kashmir and escape of some of the militants in the twin operations. Chief Minister Mehbooba Mufti has also voiced concern over civilian killings in the anti-militancy gun battles.
Sources said the Centre has mooted proposal for selective role of NSG commandos in the anti-militancy operations in Kashmir. Setting up of a “small regional hub” of the NSG for operations in Jammu and Kashmir is also being considered. The hub would not necessarily be required to be set up in Jammu and Kashmir and can even be set up in the neighbouring States.
The NSG commandos were called in January 7, 2016 attack on Pathankot airbase in Punjab to eliminate the militants, numbering four to six, in the operation that had lasted four to five days. However, in Jammu and Kashmir, the Army has been using para commandos from Northern Command in flushing out militants during fidayeen attacks on security installations. At one point of time, Army was opposed to use of NSG commandos in the operations against militants saying it would create multiple forces in the gun battles.
However, according to sources, the NSG commandos could play their role in eliminating the militants hiding inside the buildings and forests.
Only few days back, Union Home Minister Rajnath Singh in a function at Hyderabad had said: “with terrorists changing their strategy every now and then, in J&K, NSG can play a key role”.
Sources said so far, NSG’s core efficiency has been in counter-terrorism, counter hijacking operations and proximate security for VVIPs. It was being used in nineties in very limited operations in Kashmir. However, during the past few years, the NSG has been used very rarely in the anti-militancy operations in Jammu and Kashmir and Punjab with Army para commandos doing the job. In some of the operations, India Air Force’s `Garud’ commandos were also involved in the Kashmir valley.
Asserting that Army has been doing extraordinary and commendable job in the anti-militancy operations in the Kashmir valley with more than 200 militants killed last year and the number also significantly very reasonable during first three and half months of this year, sources said the NSG would be called in rarest of the rare operations, if all security agencies agreed to their deployment, and that too with consent of the agencies, which were part of the Unified Headquarters.
The NSG commandos, who are quite often called as `black cats’, had been instrumental in very successful operations including 26/11 Mumbai terror attacks, where they were used to flush out the Pakistani militants.
The NSG, like Central Reserve Police Force (CRPF), Border Security Force (BSF), Sashastra Seema Bal (SSB), Indo-Tibet Border Police (ITBP) and Central Industrial Security Force (CISF), operated under the control of the Union Home Ministry,
Security experts believed that NSG could play effective role in flushing out the militants from deep inside the buildings or eliminating them as they are specially trained for the purpose.

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