Army, NSG may see joint training
Vijay Mohan
Tribune News Service
Pathankot, January 6
While the rationale of employing the National Security Guard (NSG) on a military installation to deal with a terrorist attack is a topic of intense debate in the security circles, the first-ever joint operation could possibly see the armed forces and the NSG working together in the future.
Defence Minister Manohar Parrikar said during his visit to the Pathankot air base that he has asked the Army and the NSG to conduct regular training together. Joint training, according to an officer, translates into joint operations being undertaken further down the road.
The armed forces, all branches of which have their own Special Forces to undertake extraordinary missions, function under the purview of the Ministry of Defence, while the NSG comes under the administrative control of the Ministry of Home Affairs.
While the Army and to some extent the Navy’s Marine Commando Force have been undertaking anti-terrorist operations, they have never jointly engaged the same adversary. The last time the armed forces and the NSG operated simultaneously was during the terror strike in Mumbai in 2008, but they were deployed at different sites.
Parrikar had claimed that the NSG was deployed at Pathankot because it was “better trained” to deal with terrorist situations, a remark that has not gone down well in the Army fraternity, considering that the Army has been involved in counter-insurgency and counter-terrorist operations for decades and its Special Forces and well trained and highly experienced in this arena.
The NSG has two functional groups: the Special Action Group (SAG) and the Special Operations Group (SOG).
‘Terror activities up in BJP rule’
Raising these questions, ex-Home Minister and senior Congress leader Sushil Kumar Shinde alleged that terror activities escalated whenever there was a BJP government at the Centre.
