PARAMILITARY FORCES REAL ROLE MODELS

The circumstances in which security personnel work and protect the lives of people, actually they are the real role models; we are not,” said Gautam Gambhir, skipper of Kolkata Knight Riders. The KKR players were in the CRPF 65th battalion camp, Tulsi Baradera, Mandir Hasaud, located on the outskirts of Raipur. They spent about one and a half hours with the jawans Tuesday afternoon. Besides Gambhir, pacer Brett Lee, all rounder Ryan ten Doeschate, batsman Yusuf Pathan and Manvinder Bisla also visited the camp.

The players also interacted with CRPF men. Gambhir described them as real heroes and said that the hard work the CRPF men were doing leaving their families behind is impossible for any one of us to do. Replying  a question of paramilitary personnel about inspiration and people behind his success, Gambhir said, “I always wanted to do something for my country whether it is through sports or the way you people are doing. My family members also supported me much but I did not have any role model.”

 To another query that how would he face his Delhi friend Virendra Sehwag when they would meet on Wednesday, Gambhir said  there is no one friend in the field as both of us is playing for two opposite sides and we both have to win.

Gambhir was of view that better cricket infrastructure should be created in small cities also to groom cricketing talents. He said that an international standard cricket stadium will definitely bring Raipur to global level.

Earlier CRPF IG (Ops- Chhattisgarh) Zulfiquar Hasan said that there are few similarities between cricketers and CRPF men.

Cricketers, play one-day and five-day test matches and fight to win the matches for the nation, in the similar fashion jawans conduct one day, two-day, three-day, five days operations to protect the nation. In the fag end of the visit, the players also inspected the weapons of CRPF and got themselves acquainted with their usage. Latest weapon like X-95, UBGL, LMG, Autofall, SLR, Carbine, AK-47, Rifle Grenade and 51 mm Mortar grabbed the attention of cricket stars.

At the outset, DIG (Administration) Pradeep Chandra, DIG (Provisioning) D Bhattacharya, DIG CRPF Raipur Range Retired Brigadeir Arun Bali,  DIG Bilaspur Range V K Chouhan Commandant 65th Bn SK Singh, Commandant (Intelligence) R K Singh, Commandant 62 Bn Rajiv Kumar Singh and other senior personnel were also present.

Landmines found in Jangalmahal ahead of CM meet

The CRPF, meanwhile, recovered a huge cache of arms and ammunition from the house of Badal Hembram, a suspected Maoist who is absconding, at Porihati Sagori village in Jamboni. A .303 rifle, two country-made revolvers, hand bombs, two batteries, one kilogram of explosives and some electric wire were recovered by joint forces during the raid at Hembram's house.

The raid came after CRPF arrested another suspected Maoist Jogen Tutu, 28, in the early hours of Tuesday. A resident of Joram village in Belpahari, Jogen was arrested from Siarbrinda in Binpur. The CRPF recovered Jogen's mobile from him which had Hembram's number on the contact list. On going through the list further, CRPF found names of people in different parts of Jangalmahal, Odisha, Jharkhand and Chattisgarh, all areas where Maoists are active. During interrogation, Jogen admitted Hembram was engaged in stockpiling arms. On cross-checking with their wanted list, CRPF realized Hembram was an absconding Maoist suspect. Jogen also confessed during interrogation that he kept an eye on the CRPF camp at Binpur and had shifted to the area from his Belpahari home for the purpose.

CRPF IG Jibesh Sahai said the force was intensifying its operations in Jangalmahal alongside Bengal police ahead of the Lok Sabha elections. "I myself visited three CRPF camps in Lalgarh today," the IG said.

Source: The Times of India 26 March, 2014