What is the Central Reserve Police Force (CRPF)?

The CRPF is the premier police force of India mainly responsible for maintaining internal security. Originally constituted as the Crown Representative Police in 1939, it is one of the oldest central paramilitary forces. CRPF has grown into a big organisation with 246 battalions, 43 group centres and 20 training institutions. All the paramilitary forces — CRPF, Border Security Force (BSF), Indo Tibetan Border Police (ITBP), Central Industrial Security Force (CISF) and Sashastra Seema Bal (SSB) — are central armed police forces controlled by Ministry of Home Affairs (MHA).

All these forces have different tasks and recruitment of their officers is done through Union Public Service Commission (UPSC). The head of these forces is always an Indian Police Service (IPS) officer.

History/Significance of CRPF:

During the early 1950s, the Force played a significant role during the amalgamation of the princely states into the Indian Union. It helped the Union Government in disciplining the rebellious princely states of Junagarh and the small principality of Kathiawar in Gujarat which had declined to join the Indian Union.

During the Chinese aggression of 1962, CRPF assisted the Indian Army in Arunachal Pradesh. Eight CRPF personnel were killed in action. In 1965 and 1971 Indo-Pak wars also, the Force fought shoulder-to-shoulder with the Indian Army, both on the Western and Eastern borders.

CRPF played a pivotal role in curbing militancy in Punjab during 1980s and insurgency in Tripura during 1990s. It has deployed about 65,000 personnel as part of 61 battalions in Jammu and Kashmir.

Main aim of the force:

The mission of the Force is to enable the government to maintain rule of law, public order and internal security effectively and efficiently. Due to its unique capability to quickly adapt to various situational requirements, CRPF has acquired the distinction of being the most acceptable Force by the people and the state administrations.

While BSF is one of largest border protection groups guarding Indian border, CRPF’s main role is to maintain law and order and conduct peaceful elections.

CISF, on the other hand, is formed to protect all government establishments such as Public Sector Undertakings (PSUs), refineries, mines, airports, metro stations etc. SSB’s main objective is to guard the Indo-Nepal and Indo-Bhutan Border.

Achievements:

According to official data, in last five years, CRPF has neutralised 715 militants/naxals, apprehended 10626, forced the surrender of 1994, recovered 5176 arms, 162743 number of assorted ammunitions, 54394 kgs of explosives, 2917 grenades, 2298 bombs, 56 rockets, 4084 gelatin sticks, 13850 kgs of narcotics and over 10 crores of cash.

Impact of the Pulwama attacks:

In the wake of the February 14 attack on CRPF in Kashmir, the Force has laid down a new strategy to not only secure the movement of convoys but also to enhance security measures for regular operations.

“As of now, I would not like to go into the specifics but we are formulating some strategies. This is something that we have done in the past and these things are dynamic. In view of this new threat, where a suicide bomber is suspected to have come close to our vehicle and detonated explosives, new strategies are being worked upon,” CRPF Director General RR Bhatnagar told Gulf News.

CRPF officer Vijay Kumar said the impact of the blast was so strong that the bodies of the soldiers were blown to smithereens and flung many feet away from the site of explosion.

“This was the saddest tragedy for our Force. Now apart from traffic control, there will be changes in the timings of convoy, their halt locations and movement in coordination with other security forces like the Army and the Jammu and Kashmir Police,” Kumar said.