In a first, the elite National Security Guard (NSG), popularly known as “the Black Cats”, will deploy its women commandos for anti-terror and counter-hijack operations along with their male counterparts.
“Women commandos are as tough and battle hardy as the other commandos and in the future there is scope for their deployment in combat roles like counter-terrorism and anti-hijack operations. I am not ruling out such a role for them in the future,” said Director General of NSG RC Tayal at the annual Press conference on occasion of its 31st Raising Day on Friday.
Tayal said there is no discrimination between the procedure for induction of male and women commandos in the federal contingency force. The quality of training imparted to both women and male commandos is also similar.
Emphasising on the constant need to upgrade both techniques and tactics in order to face the new challenges, Tayal said a number of initiatives have been undertaken during the last one year.
The new initiatives include enhancement of surveillance capabilities, strengthening of Regional Hubs, conduct of joint training of NSG with Special Forces of other countries like US, Germany, France and even those from the Asian countries. While another round of joint exercise with the special forces of the US is scheduled to be held here next week, the force is also scheduling such an exercise with Thailand.
In yet another first, the paramilitary has also introduced Parkour technique, a non-combative martial art, in its training drills in its bid to make the Black Cats more agile and flexible. Through this technique, the commandos can climb a multi-storeyed building within a matter of seconds or jump from one roof to another without using any equipment. likewise, the trained commandos can jump from a high-rise using the technique or enter a window of a moving bus from a parallel mobile vehicle enabling the Black Cats to insert themselves inside windows/doors of a building and conduct room intervention.
The technique is being used by the special forces around the world like Delta Force of the US and Israeli special force that increases efficiency and agility of the commandos.
The force that is essentially designed for urban combat has also introduced jungle warfare training so as to meet any contingency in undertaking swift operations against the Naxals.
During the last one year, the NSG has also trained as many as 16 special forces of 22 States/Union Territories that have raised such specialised units. This will help in tackling counter-terror and anti-hijack operations better as they can handle such contingencies being the first responders to such challenges before the NSG reaches the site, Tayal added.