CRPF to train in guerrilla warfare-Jul 11, 2010,

CRPF to train in guerrilla warfare

Supriya Sharma, TNN, Jul 11, 2010, 03.56am IST

RAIPUR: Faced with repeated losses in Bastar, CRPF has made a quiet change in its training schedule. A batch of 30-odd personnel has been sent for training to Counter Terrorism and Jungle Warfare centre in Kanker set up by the Chhattisgarh government and run by former Army Brigadier B K Ponwar.

The centre has earned fame for turning pot-bellied cops into guerrilla fighters. In the last five years, 12,700 policemen from five states have chased targets, rappelled down ropes, eaten snakes, as part of a 45-day gruelling combat schedule based on Ponwar's now famous motto: 'Fight a guerrilla like a guerrilla'.

Impressed with the rigour, and keen to orient their men to Bastar's conditions before deploying them on the field, other paramilitary forces like BSF, ITBP and SSB sent entire battalions for training to Ponwar. "More than 2,300 paramilitary men trained this year. Not a single man died on the field," says Brigadier Ponwar.

In contrast, CRPF which did not send its personnel to the centre for training lost more than 100 men in three months. CRPF is India's oldest paramilitary force with multiple training centres.

Two of the centres at Silchar in Assam and Shivpuri in Madhya Pradesh specialize in counter insurgency training.