SPECIAL FORCE 10 MEGHALAYA

These would be men and women not on “Her Majesty’s” but, “Meghalaya’s service,” and unlike James Bond, would be answerable to people in protecting their days and nights from rioters, communal elements and insurgents.

For all the James Bond fans, introducing Meghalaya’s very own Special Force - the Special Force 10. The force is for real and would be raised by the State Government after the Cabinet gave its approval yesterday and it would consist of ten battle-hardened companies, including a women’s. The total strength of the special force would be 1795.

“We have decided to raise the Special Force 10 (SF-10),” State Home Minister Roshan Warjri announced after the decision to raise the special force. Now, the State Government would tweak the Meghalaya Police Act so that the formal process of recruitment of men and women for SF-10 could begin.

Chief Minister Mukul Sangma said that the State needed a special force of its own, as time and again reliance on the centre for paramilitary forces for internal security, has been fraught with uncertainties. He justified: “maintaining internal security is the duty of the state government, since law and order is the responsibility of the state Government.”

The training of the SF-10 would be undertaken by “experts from outside the state.” The commandos and the officers would all undergo the training so that they are ready to multi-task when it comes to handling internal security scenario. That would mean jumping from a counter-insurgency operation to a “control the riots” scenario.

It is likely that the SF-10 would undergo intensive training under the National Security Guards (NSG) or MARCOS, India’s Marine Commandos. Para Commandos, NSG and MARCOS are highly trained to deal with crisis situations and are amongst the top special forces of the world.

Special Forces around the world are revered for the special operations they undertaken under worst case scenarios mainly in rescue operations. The heroics of the NSG and MARCOS are etched in the collective memory of Indians during the rescue operations of Mumbai Terror attack in 2011 and Akshardham terror attack.

In Meghalaya, the Garo Hills situation is slowly but surely spiraling out of hand and coupled with situations like last year’s agitation called by NGOs and its violent fall-out, the Government’s work is cut out on  internal security management and so the SF-10.