The Sharp Shooters

Then meet Sub Inspector Praveen Purseth, of the Chhattisgarh Armed Police (CAP), but now an instructor at the Counter Terrorism and Jungle Warfare School (CTJWS) in Kanker. Fit and alert, he carries his AK-47 like a third arm, and is a product the army’s Counter Insurgency Warfare School in Mizoram. Today, he is one of a group of instructors assisting Inspector General of Police B.K. Ponwar, a retired infantry Brigadier, to run the CTJWS. Ponwar’s mandate: transform the police not just in Chhattisgarh, but from neighbouring Maoist-affected states such as Orissa and Jharkhand, into a fighting force.

Says Ponwar a counter-insurgency expert: "The Maoists’ are not jut well-trained but their ability to merge with the crowd introduces the surprise element." The goal, he says, is to train the police in guerrilla tactics and establish a "counter-insurgency grid so that we can dominate areas where the strong arm of the state is missing today."

But along with physical fitness and and psychological preparedness, Ponwar stresses the men are being taught to make friends with the villagers and be sensitive. "Without local intelligence, everything could fail," he says.