Central Reserve Police Force (CRPF)
The Central Reserve Police Force (CRPF) is a federal police organization in India under the authority of the Ministry of Home Affairs (MHA) of the Government of India. It is one among the Central Armed Police Forces. The CRPF's primary role lies in assisting the State/Union Territories in police operations to maintain law and order and counter-insurgency. It is composed of Central Reserve Police Force (Regular) and Central Reserve Police Force (Auxiliary).
It came into existence as the Crown Representative's Police on 27 July 1939. After Indian independence, it became the Central Reserve Police Force on enactment of the CRPF Act on 28 December 1949. Besides law and order and counter-insurgency duties, the CRPF has played an increasingly large role in India's general elections. This is especially true for the erstwhile state of Jammu and Kashmir, Bihar and in the North East, with the presence of unrest and often violent conflict. During the Parliamentary elections of September 1999, the CRPF played a major role in the security arrangements. Of late, CRPF contingents are also being deployed in UN missions.
With 246 battalions and various other establishments, the CRPF is considered India's largest central armed police force and has a sanctioned strength of more than 300,000 personnel as of 2019.[3]
Mission
The mission of the Central Reserve Police Force shall be to enable the government to maintain Rule of Law, Public Order and Internal Security effectively and efficiently to preserve National Integrity & Promote Social Harmony and Development by upholding supremacy of the Constitution.
In performing these tasks with utmost regard for human dignity and freedom of the citizens of India, the force shall endeavor to achieve excellence in management of internal security and national calamities by placing Service and Loyalty above self.
History
- The CRPF was derived from the CRP (Crown Representative's Police) on 27 July 1939 with 2 battalions in Nimach [Means North Indian Mounted Artillery and Cavalry Headquarter], Madhya Pradesh. Its primary duty at the time was to protect the British residents in sensitive states of India.[4]
- In 1949, the CRP was renamed under the CRPF Act. During the 1960s, many state reserve police battalions were merged with the CRPF. The CRPF has been active against foreign invasion and domestic insurgency.
- On 21 October 1959, SI Karam Singh and 20 soldiers were attacked by the Chinese Army at Hot Springs in Ladakh resulting in 10 casualties. The survivors were imprisoned. Since then, 21 October is observed as Police Commemoration day nationwide, across all states in India.[5]
- On the intervening night of 8 and 9 April 1965, 3500 men of the 51st Infantry Brigade of Pakistan, comprising 18 Punjab Bn, 8 Frontier Rifles and 6 Baluch Bn, stealthily launched operation "Desert Hawk" against border posts in Rann of Kutch. It was to the valour of Head Constable Bhawana Ram deployed on the eastern parameter of Sardar Post whose gallant act was to a great extent instrumental in demoralizing the intruders and forcing them to retreat from the post.
There are few parallels of such a battle and the then Union Home Minister very appropriately graded it as a "Military Battle" not a Police battle. The service and their sacrifice will now not need to turn back to old records for appreciation with that historic moment being picked up for celebration as "Valour Day" of the Force after Year. [check quotation syntax]
- The CRPF guarded the India-Pakistan Border until 1965, at which point the Border Security Force was created for that purpose.
- On 2001 Indian Parliament attack the CRPF troopers killed all five terrorists who had entered the premises of the Indian Parliament in New Delhi.
- When 5 armed terrorists tried to storm the Ram Janambhoomi Complex in Ayodhya on 5 July 2005 and had penetrated the outer security rings, they were challenged by CRPF which formed the inner security ring. Shri Vijeto Tinyi, AC and Shri Dharambir Singh, Head Constable, who exhibited exemplary gallant were awarded with ‘Shaurya Chakra’.[4]
- In recent years, the Government of India has decided to follow up on recommendations of the Indian cabinet to use each security agency for its mandated purpose. As a result, the counter-insurgency operations in India have been entrusted to the CRPF.
- In 2008 a wing called Commando Battalion for Resolute Action (CoBRA) was added to the CRPF to counter the Naxalite movement.
- On 2 September 2009, 5000 CRPF soldiers were deployed for a search and rescue mission to find the then Andhra Pradesh Chief Minister Y. S. Rajasekhara Reddy whose helicopter went missing over the Nallamalla Forest Range in Andhra Pradesh. This was the largest search operation ever mounted in India.
The Central Reserve Police Force (CRPF) is the premier central police force of the Union of India for internal security. Originally constituted as the Crown Representative Police in 1939, it is one of the oldest Central para-military forces (now termed as Central Armed Police Force). CRPF was raised as a sequel to the political unrest and the agitations in the then princely States of India following the Madras Resolution of the All-India Congress Committee in 1936 and the ever-growing desire of the Crown Representative to help the vast majority of the native States to preserve law and order as a part of the imperial policy.
After Independence, the force was renamed as Central Reserve Police Force by an Act of Parliament on 28 December 1949. This Act constituted CRPF as an armed force of the Union. Sardar Vallabhbhai Patel, the then Home Minister, visualized a multi-dimensional role for it in tune with the changing needs of a newly independent nation.
During the early 1950s, the performance of the CRPF detachments in Bhuj, the then Patiala and East Punjab state Union (PEPSU)Patiala and East Punjab States Union and Chambal ravines was appreciated by all quarters. 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.
Soon after Independence, contingents of the CRPF were sent to Kutch, Rajasthan and Sindh borders to check infiltration and trans-border crimes. They were, subsequently, deployed on the Pakistan border in Jammu and Kashmir following attacks launched by the Pakistani infiltrators. The CRPF bore the brunt of the first Chinese attack on India at Hot Springs (Ladakh) on 21 October 1959. A small CRPF patrol was ambushed by the Chinese in which ten of its men made their supreme sacrifice for the country. Their martyrdom on 21 October is remembered throughout the country as the Police Commemoration Day every year.
During the Sino-Indian War of 1962, the Force once again assisted the Indian Army in Arunachal Pradesh. Eight CRPF personnel were killed in action. In the 1965 and 1971 Indo-Pak wars also the Force fought shoulder-to-shoulder with the Indian Army, both on the Western and Eastern borders.
For the first time in the history of para-military Forces in India, thirteen companies of CRPF including a detachment of women were airlifted to join the Indian Peace Keeping Force in Sri Lanka to fight the militant cadres. Besides, CRPF personnel were also sent to Haiti, Namibia, Somalia and Maldives to deal with law and order situation there, as a part of the UN Peace Keeping Force.
In the late seventies, when extremist elements disturbed the peace in Tripura and Manipur, CRPF battalions were deployed in strength. Simultaneously, there was turmoil in the Brahmaputra Valley. The CRPF had to be inducted in strength not only to maintain law and order but also to keep lines of communication free from disruption. The commitments of the Force continue to be very high in the Northeast in dealing with the insurgency.[6]
third Mahila Bn i.e. the 135 (M) Bn with HQR at Gandhinagar (Gujarat) in 1995 and the 213 Bn with HQR at Nagpur (Maharastra) in 2011.[21]
Weapons
CRPF uses basic Infantry weapons which are manufactured indigenously at the Indian Ordnance Factories under control of the Ordnance Factories Board: They are also equipped with weapons like CGRL, 81mm mortars, AGLs, etc.
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