Karnataka trains 16 women for first team of female Garuda Commandos to fight terror

Mangalore Today News Network / News18

Bengaluru, Feb 08, 2021:     Karnataka Police has started recruited a 16-women team from mostly villages across the state and is training them to learn shooting, develop weapon-wielding skills and handle terror as they are being trained to be part of the first batch of all-woman Garuda Commandos.

 

Karnataka: Additional DGP (Internal Security) Bhaskar Rao meets the first batch of all-women ’Garuda’ commandos of the police. pic.twitter.com/gqL6phZPJN

— ANI (@ANI) February 6, 2021

Before being inducted as part of Karnataka’s very own anti-terror squad, these women are being trained at the Bengaluru Centre for Counter-Terrorism which is being led by police official ML Madhura Veena.
State’s senior police official Bhaskar Rao on 5 February met the team.

Speaking to news agency ANI, Rao said, "The Garuda force of Karnataka police has got good training and weapons too. With the help of serving Brigadier, Lt Colonels and 20 JCOs of the Ministry of Defence, we have established the Centre for Counter-Terrorism Garuda force in Karnataka. After the 26/11 incident which took place in Mumbai, the central government took the initiative to provided NSG hubs for a few cities which are financially strong and need maximum security."

Elaborating further, Rao said how Karnataka did not get a National Security Guard hub but the Defence Ministry sent a few officers who trained the women. The state has now a total of 170 commandos and after the basic training is complete, the commandos are kept with them for 3-4 years and are given hardcore training to handle any terror threat.

Rao said the state government has sanctioned training for 175 commandos and they had 40 vacant posts for which the office decided to train women.

"We are giving good training to the women staff who are below 30 years of age. This training includes physical fitness and weapons handling. They have to be thoroughly trained. Other staff like KSRP, civil police, DAR, CAR cannot do these anti-terrorist operations. As it is an expensive training, it can’t be given to all. The government is giving amenities to all these commandos because they all have to be on alert 24/7. We have qualified professionals and we are capable of neutralising terrorists," Rao told ANI.

Women members from Karnataka State Reserve Police (KSRP) and Karnataka State Industrial Security Force have come up on their own to take part in the training. Originally 35 women were selected

for the training out of which 16 managed to endure the rigours of the hardcore training.

The women, after they finish their training are tested by hand to hand combat training/fighting at least 3-4 people which helps the officers understand the extent of their prowess and training.

"That will show the impact of training we gave. When women are working in all fields, we thought why not here," Rao told ANI.

The training for these women commandos is a continuous process and they learn physical fitness, stress management, weapon training, explosives and breaching of door within a short span of time among other skills.