With Islamabad showing no signs of relenting on infiltration in Jammu and Kashmir, the government has given a go ahead to the raising of four more battalions of special forces, who will be trained in Israel for specialised counter insurgency strikes.The proposal for raising these new elite commando forces, specially in ‘‘irregular warfare’’, has been cleared by the Cabinet Committee on Security (CCS) and additional funds have been allocated for it, highly placed Army officials said.The officers and men from these newly-raised battalions will be sent to Israel for special anti-insurgency warfare training, the officials added. A high-level Defence Ministry delegation is scheduled to visit Israel next week to clear the deck for the training.India and Israel recently signed a 30-million dollar agreement to arm these special forces with Israeli tavros light weapons systems. The system is said to be the most advanced in contemporary warfare.India already has brigade strength special forces comprising four battalions, 1 para-commandos, 9 para-commandos, 10 para-commandos and 21st para-commandos. While, 1 para- commandos, with deep sea divers in its ranks, specialises in anti-hijacking and hostage crises, the 9 para-commandos, with experienced mountaineers, is dedicated mountain guerrilla force. The 10 para-commandos is for desert operations and the 21st was raised recently for jungle terrain.The Army brass was tightlipped about the role of the newly raised special forces, which will make India, only the fifth country in the world, to have division strength special forces after US, Russia, China and UK.Sources said the newly raised forces specially trained in high risk hit-and-run tactics will be assigned to target militants staging points near the LOC and seek and destroy mercernary ammunition dumps near the border and in the hinterland in J-K.
