Under pressure to increase force levels in J-K, the Army Headquarters have chosen to consolidate rather than expand the Rashtriya Rifles (RR) force. This can be gauged from the fact that the Headquarters recently turned down a proposal to add three more commando battalions to the RR, raised a decade ago to battle terrorism in the state.The Headquarters felt that a proliferation of further commando battalions would be a retrograde step as the adding more battalions at this stage would strain the Army’s limited manpower resources. The RR battalions were originally raised after drawing on the existing Army units as ‘‘volunteers’’. Since the RR has been unable to raise its own troops, as originally envisaged, it has continued to draw on existing units, even depending on the respective regimental centres for administrative support.The Army’s military operations directorate also observed that it needs more time to study the operational role of the commando battalion before a decision can be taken on expanding the force. South Block sources also point out that presently most of the Army’s special forces units have already sent teams in the state to operate against terrorists.
