36-Women SWAT Team From Northeast Forms Delhi Terror Shield

India is all set to have the first all-women SWAT (Special Weapons and Tactics) team. The Delhi Police will be the first police force in the country to make this happen. The 36-member team hails from the Northeast and will form Delhi's terror shield. Home minister, Rajnath Singh, will formally induct the unit in Delhi Police today.

First such team in India

The 36 constables are trained by specialists from India and abroad. They have been admitted into the squad after a rigorous, 15- month training. Police commissioner Amulya Patnaik is the person behind this idea and implementation. “These women are second to none when it comes to handling terror strikes and hostage crises in urban areas. In fact, they were rated better than their male counterparts by their trainers at Police Training College in Haroda Kalan,” Patnaik told TOI.

This is certainly a big achievement in every which way as most western countries do not have all-women SWAT teams because of the kind of training needed for it. The maximum number of women, 13, are from Assam and five each from Arunachal Pradesh, Sikkim and Manipur. These women are trained in Israeli Krav Maga, an unarmed combat style, and equipped with MP5 submachine guns and Glock 21 pistols.

They will be stationed at strategic locations in central and south Delhi. Many from the team will also be posted in anti-terror vans called Parakram.

The team is trained to handle challenges like climbing multi-storey buildings. They are also well trained for carrying out hostage rescue operations at hotels, buses or metro trains. The idea of an all-women SWAT team was conceived when 41 newly-inducted policewomen completed a four-month commando training

In order to minimise the language problem, an instructor from the Northeast is also included in the training team. While general duty male constables get a 12-month training, these women have undergone a rigorous training of 15 months. Also, they further honed their skills at the NSG Centre in Manesar.

They are experts at unarmed combat, ambush and counter ambush, jungle operation, urban operation which includes building interventions, vehicle/bus intervention and VVIP security. They have also been imparted basic knowledge of explosives and IEDs apart from being trained to use a wide array of weapons,” DCP (Special Cell) Pramod Kushwaha told TOI.

The trainer said that the team has mixed well with personnel from other parts of the country. Also, there is a great mix of cultures at the academy at present. We wish the team the very best!

Picture Credit: DD News

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