The Nagaland police have geared up to launch a functional special tactics unit, to be known as the Special Task Force (STF), which commandos were already trained at the Counter Insurgency and Anti-terrorism School (CIATS) at Ruzaphema under Medziphema sub-division in Dimapur district.
According to various sources, although there was no official declaration from the Nagaland police headquarters so far, the STF unit will be a full-fledged fighting force, the standing strength of the STF is said to be around 200 currently.
The personnel for the STF were picked from the regular police battalions and specifically trained to function as a commando unit styled on the lines of special operations teams that has become a staple of police and military forces across the world.
The first batch of the STF underwent training at the CIATS from March to July this year and it will pull on a separate combat uniform different from the ones issued to regular armed battalions. As per sources, the unit will be equipped with special tactical weaponry and transport with sophisticated armoured vehicles and will be reserved only for special operations.
Sources also informed that the Nagaland police will have a separate unit known as the Special Security Group (SSG) for protecting VIPs. The SSG will comprise the existing personnel detailed for VIP security and will don the same uniform as the STF. Focus of the SSG will on retraining, fine-tuning and evolving to form the specialised unit, sources further informed.
