NSG Commandos
NSG commandos on Republic Day.Creative commons

An Indian Army officer, deployed in south Kashmir, said that the army had always dealt with most of the counter-terror operations in the region and fears that adding National Security Guard (NSG) as "force multiplier" might only add to confusion in the terror-torn state. NSG was involved in these operations only once in a few years.

The Black Cats will soon begin training security forces at an NSG regional training centre in Jammu and Kashmir with their major focus on urban core operation, urban warfare and room intervention.

This decision was taken by the Ministry of Home Affairs, but the information was kept a secret for nearly a month, Mail Today reported.

Bringing in the Black Cats into the terror-torn state had spiralled discussions within the forces. They were brought in for operational purpose and were met with opposition from army and security forces.

Due to this, the NSG team's training will be limited to training CRPF and Jammu and Kashmir Police. "A Company (40 personnel) of Black Cats commandos of the NSG have been camping at the CRPF pre-induction training centre in Lethapora, near Srinagar, for close to a month, though any sort of training is yet to begun," sources told the Mail Today.

Reports say that that Special Action Group (SAG), which is ideally trained to carry out anti-hijack and anti-terror operations, are currently stationed in south Kashmir. One of the sources said that the army had been opposing the involvement of Black Cats in counter-terror operations.

Despite being the best at counter-terror operations, the NSG was not called in during the August 26 suicide attack which was unleashed by three Jaish-e-Mohammed terrorists at Pulwama. Although the terrorists were present in two blocks, none of the forces felt the need to involve in the NSG who were stationed not far away from there.