RAKSHA ANIRVEDA
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INDIA’S SPECIAL FRONTIER FORCE: A FORCE TO RECKON WITH Special Frontier Force has played an important role in multiple military operations, starting from 1971 India-Pakistan war to the 1999 Kargil battle largely functioned under the shadows. Now is the time the government should give the SFF a lead as it has already drawn first blood from the PLA By SRI KRISHNA
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t is the mine blast killing a Tibetan in the ongoing India China standoff along the Line of Actual Control (LAC) in Ladakh, which has brought the Special Frontier Force (SFF) created almost 58 years ago after the SinoIndian War in 1962 to the limelight once again. Among the major reasons for the creation of this Force on November 14, 1962 was to conduct covert operations behind Chinese lines in the event of another Sino-Indian War. The Force known as ‘Establishment 22’ or just ‘22’ due to its first Inspector General, Maj. Gen. Sujan Singh Uban, who commanded the 22nd Mountain
Division as an artillery officer in Europe during World War II is based in the Uttarakhand hill station of Chakrata and put under the direct supervision of
Then Prime Minister Jawarlal Nehru meeting Army jawans during 1962 India-China war (File photo)
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the Intelligence Bureau (IB), and later, the Research and Analysis Wing (RAW), India’s external intelligence agency and is not part of the Indian Army but functions under their operational control with its own rank structure, charter and training infrastructure. It falls under the authority of Directorate General on Security in Cabinet Secretariat headed by an Inspector General (IG), who is selected from the Major General rank of the Indian Army that reports directly to the Prime Minister’s Office (PMO). The need for such a force was suggested by General KS Thimayya, who was the Army chief between May 1957 and May 1961, but was not initially accepted by Prime Minister Jawaharlal Nehru and Defence Minister VK Krishna Menon. By the end of 1962, after immense lobbying by the Intelligence Bureau Chief Bhola Nath Mullick and World War II veteran Biju Patnaik, Nehru government finally ordered the raising of this elite commando unit and specialised mountain divisions called Vikas Battalion later renamed Special Frontier
10/12/2020 7:36:41 AM
