Salute the daring Commandos

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National Security Guards (NSG) is a Special Response Unit in India that has primarily been utilised for counter-terrorism activities and was created by the Cabinet Secretariat under the National Security Guard Act of the Parliament in 1985. The act was in response to the 1984 Operation Bluestar; the advance of Indian military to remove Sikh separatists who had seized control of the Golden Temple. The operation involved a significantly large number of military combatants; casualties, numbering in few hundreds, also involved civilians. The temple also suffered heavy damages. The NSG commandos were first used to combat the insurgency movement in the Indian state of Punjab in 1985.

The NSG (also called Black cats) operates under the oversight of the Ministry of Home Affairs and is headed by the Director General of the Indian Police Service (IPS). Present Director General of NSG is Lt Gen Jyoti Krishan Dutt.

Recruitment is done from the Indian Armed Forces and other paramilitary forces.It is a complete deputational based structure. The NSG has a total personnel strength of about 14,500. The Commando base is at Manesar, Haryana–122051. Tel : 91-124-2338157, E-mail : [email protected]. National Bomb data centre, Manesar : Tel No – 0124-2864640/42,Fax - 0124-2338271.

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The NSG's roles include protecting VIPs, conducting anti-sabotage checks, rescuing hostages, Bomb disposal (search, detection and neutralisation of IEDs), neutralizing terrorist threats to vital installations, engaging terrorists and responding to hijacking and piracy.

Recent important NSG operations are

# September 25, 2002 - Operation Vajra Shakti to free hostages held by terrorists who had killed 26 worshippers at the Akshardham temple in Ahmedabad, Gujarat. They suffered their first combat death in this operation. Another commando, who was seriously injured and was in a coma, died after 18 months.

# November 2008 Mumbai attacks - Operation Black Tornado, Operation Cyclone to flush out terrorists & rescue hostages after multiple attacks across Mumbai, India. Major Sandeep Unnikrishnan and Havaldar Gajender Singh of Special Action Group lost their lives during the operations.

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There have been 376 IED (Improvised Explosive Devices) blast incidents out of a total 530 bombing incidents reported for the whole of India during 2007.

Bomb disposal Guidelines

Do’s

Always keep an eye for suspicious object.
Recognize an IED. Never handle an unclaimed object.
Notice your surrounding for anything out of place.
Evacuate all the persons immediately to a safe distance.
Open all windows and doors.
Remove all valuable and hazardous materials like fuel and electronic items.
Place sand bags around the suspected object. The height of sand bags should be
three times the height of suspected object.
Inform the bomb disposal squad.
Inform fire brigade, hospital and ambulance.
Do handle the package alone if you are duty bound to handle the object.

Don’ts

Do not spread rumors.
Do not touch, disturb, and approach the suspected object.
Do not try to submerge the suspicious object in water.
Do not try to open or puncture the suspicious object.
Do not try to be a dead hero.