India boosts equipment for paramilitaries

NEW DELHI, June 10 (UPI) -- India has approved nearly $64 million for immediate purchase of equipment for its paramilitary forces including those fighting the Naxalite movement in the east.

On the shopping list are 119 Tata light armored troop carriers and 98 Mahindra Rakshak bullet-proof light vehicles worth in total around $19 million, Defense Minister P. Chidambaram said.

The deal also includes night vision devices for rifles, 146 automatic grenade launchers and 47,000 grenades from Rosoboron Export of Russia, as well as laser range finders from Slovenian company Fotono.

In the past two months the Home Ministry also gave the go ahead to buy 59,000 light-weight, bullet-proof jackets.

Much of the equipment is destined for paramilitary forces including the Central Reserve Police Force, the Railway Protection Force, Border Security Force, National Security Guard and the Indo-Tibetan Border Police.

Also, the Central Industrial Police Force, set up in 1983 to guard airports, nuclear plants and other sensitive installations, is looking to buy around 1,000 pistols. It already uses Glock pistols.

The equipment is most urgently needed for the CRPF and the NSG.

The CRPF was set up 60 years ago to help local police forces maintain order, especially when fighting insurgency movements such as the Naxalites. The force returns to barracks once a mission is completed.

The NSG was established in 1986 as a tactical force for use in terrorist situations and standoffs such as the November 2008 Mumbai attacks. It recently placed an order for more than 800 Swiss-made SIG Sauer assault rifles and is looking to buy around 380 automatic grenade launchers and related ammunition at a cost of $8 million.

The CRPF is in the vanguard of the 50,000 paramilitary troops involved in the federal government's 2-year Operation Green Hunt drive against insurgents. The CRPF is helping local police in so-called Naxal-infested areas as part of an attempt also to win the hearts and minds of the local population. Many of the rural poor are attracted to Naxalite promises of a better life if natural resources wealth was shared more equitably.

The Naxalites are one of the larger splinter rebel groups from India's legal communist parties and have been fighting a low-level but sometimes deadly campaign against state and central governments since 1967.

Last month the CRPF lost 20 officers who were among 40 people killed in a bomb attack by suspected Naxalite communists groups. The passengers were in a bus in the Dantewada district in the southern part of Chhattisgarh state in eastern India when it reportedly hit a land mine in the road.

Chhattisgarh is in what is known as the "red corridor" that takes in several rural states in eastern and central India.