Lacking basic facilities,Bihars anti-Naxal training school struggles to get off ground

In a state where 30 of the 38 districts are Naxal-affected,it is the first Counter Insurgency and Anti-Terrorist Training CIAT School....

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In a state where 30 of the 38 districts are Naxal-affected,it is the first Counter Insurgency and Anti-Terrorist Training CIAT School. Located ironically in the backyard of an international symbol of peace,the Mahabodhi temple at Bodh Gaya,it was sanctioned by the Centre early this year to impart specialised training to the state police in counter-insurgency,jungle warfare and terrorism,in the backdrop of a rising Naxal threat. While the first batch has already passed out and the second inducted,the school is trying to get on its feet without requisite facilities,equipment and faculty.

The biggest lapse perhaps is that the Bodh Gaya CIAT has not even a small firing range,which means that through their eight-week course,the first batch of police trainees got to fire the sophisticated weapons which they are exposed to at the school just once. Further,the absence of dummy grenades,IEDs or detonators means they have to make do with using stones for target practice.

However,what weighs greatest on their minds and officials admit to this only in private is that they feel vulnerable in an area located at the centre of the Naxal hotbed of Gaya,Aurangabad and Jehanabad. The school holds many sophisticated weapons provided for training,and with Naxals known to attack to loot weapons,officials wish the school had a more fortified location.

With the Centre turning down the state governments demand for 23 CRPF companies to fight the Naxal menace and existing police personnel not equipped in jungle warfare or night operations,the Bodh Gaya CIAT school was expected to provide an answer to Bihars Maoists.

The first CIAT batch was taken in on March 29 and underwent a 56-day specialised training in tactical and intelligence operations,including guerrilla warfare. The course was also designed to train jawans in long-range firing and night firing. Currently 106 constables,all drawn from the Naxal-hit districts of Bihar,are undergoing training at the school.

The first batch,however,did not exactly undergo the envisaged special syllabus. While constables,used to handling just traditional and age-old .303 rifles,were exposed to sophisticated weapons,they got the chance to fire the same just once. Still,officially CIAT-trained,they might soon be posted in Naxal belts.

A trainer with 11 years of experience in insurgency-hit Jammu and Kashmir,Taleshwar Singh says trainees must be able to practise shooting every week. There is also nothing like having a long firing range to learn real counter-insurgency ways, he says.

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Another trainer,Brijnandan Roy,says night training was another prerequisite. CIAT must get weapons equipped with night firing technology, says Roy,who has served in Kargil and Anantnag.

Other trainers rue that their hands are tied in the absence of dummy explosives. At times,we use small stones as dummy grenades. It is not at all convincing. We have to make them learn how to target a grenade accurately and escape getting hurt, said one of the trainers.

Deputy Superintendent of Police,Training,at BMP-3 Bihar Military Police S K Singh,the ex-officio principal of CIAT in the absence of a faculty,admits that the arrangement is so far largely ad-hoc,but that changes were on their way.

The new batch,for example,attends theory classes on tactical and Intelligence operations and psychological tests in classrooms belonging to BMP-3. Two classrooms and as many dining halls,besides eight barracks to accommodate 200 trainees,are under construction. But these are unlikely to be ready for another year.

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The Bodh Gaya CIAT currently has a temporary faculty of one junior commissioned officer and 18 ex-Army men,recruited as Special Auxiliary Police SAP havildars by the Bihar government,till year-end. The permanent SAP faculty is to include a retired Lieutenant Colonel,24 subedars and 48 havildars. The services of SAP jawans as trainers will be need-based for CIATs.

Meagre as the facilities are,Bihars poorly trained constables welcome this chance to train with the best. They listen avidly as former Armymen share their field experiences in troubled areas of Jamp;K,Punjab and Northeast,in between weapon-handling lessons,and teach them how to conduct and tackle ambushes and read area maps.