The Commanding Officer of 46 Assam Rifles, his wife and son were among seven people killed in a militant ambush in Manipur’s Singhat on Saturday. Four soldiers of the paramilitary force were also killed in the attack. While no group has claimed responsibility, Manipur’s separatist revolutionary group People’s Liberation Army is suspected to be behind the attack.
Assam Rifles is India’s oldest paramilitary force dating back to 1835 when it was raised as a force called ‘Cachar Levy’. It got its current name in 1917. The force has been guarding India’s 1,640-km long border with Myanmar besides providing operational and logistics support to the Army in keeping a strict vigil in several key sectors along the Sino-India boundary in Arunachal Pradesh.
It has also been carrying out counter-insurgency operations in militancy-infested states in the Northeastern region, including Manipur, along with providing developmental assistance to people. The force’s motto is ‘Sentinels of the North East’.
The Assam Rifles, at present, has a total of 46 battalions, and most of its units are headed by Army officers since 1884. The Assam Rifles was put under the complete operational control of the Army in 1965.
The Assam Rifles draws its strength of officers from the Army and functions under the command of the Union Home Ministry. The Home Ministry has administrative authority over the paramilitary force, while the Army has its operational control.
“The Assam Rifles fills the void when Army units carry forward the battle to the enemy territory. This is the only genuine paramilitary force which actively participated in all the wars since Independence including the 1962 and 1971 wars,” a Press Trust of India report from 2019 quoted a senior Army official as saying.
The two-thirds of the overall composition of the training imparted to the Assam Rifles personnel are based on conventional warfare so that they can help the Army in times of war, the official had said.
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