Very rare pics of some of India's Special Forces, specialty units

[rajkhalsa]

The Indian special forces units are a secretive bunch, and only a relative handful, perhaps up to 50, pics of them exist on the net, most of them from news photos.

Here are some pics from several units that I don't think have ever been posted before


Indian Navy

Naval Marine Commandos (MARCOS)





-------==--=--==-------

Indian Army

Pic of Indo-Tibetan Border Police training.:



Rare pics of Sashastra Seema Bal, a paramilitary tracker/guards force tasked with policing the remote areas of the India Nepali border:









Parachute Regiment pics:









Finally, some ultra-rare pics from the website of the family of martyred Major Udai Singh, SM, who laid down his life saving his fellow soldier during an intense firefight with Pakistani al-Queda terrorists of Lashkar-e-Toiba, and earned the Sena Medal posthumously for his bravery.

The website has very rare pics of his unit, Paracommando/22 Special Forces, "The Mavericks", in action:


^ Captain Udai Singh, RIP




^ Training demonstration












Cheers,
Raj

[Bootneck]

Very interesting. Thanks.

[attackong]

Good, distant land´s forces !
Never seen !

Did they get lessons with Bruce Lee ?

[Steve Andrews]

Think Special
Act Special
Be Special


Nice!

[brigadeotg]

Raj,
I've seen all but for the MARCOS pics!! That is rare indeed If you don't mind, what is the source of the MARCOS pics?

Thanks

[REMOV]

...and I'm still looking for a picture of the Indian soldiers with Israeli Tavor assault rifle

[Stormy]

These are very good Raj, keep it up.

and I'm still looking for a picture of the Indian soldiers with Israeli Tavor assault rifle

Where?

[rajkhalsa]

Thanks guys

brigadeotg,
I honestly don't remember where I had dl them to my hd a while back when googling for something totally unrelated. They were posted at another forum by somebody from India who scanned them from a magazine, I think

...and I'm still looking for a picture of the Indian soldiers with Israeli Tavor assault rifle

In one of the earlier Tavor threads, it was reported that the Tavors are going to first equip India's ultra-secret (even for Indian special forces) Special Frontier Force. There are only 2 modern pics on the net of the 10,000 man unit in existance, both originally taken in the early 80s , so I doubt that pics are going to surface any time soon

For anyone interested in the SFF, you can check out this thread I made a long time back:
India's Tibetan Troops: Histories & Rare Photographs

Cheers,
Raj

[RBIH_Troop]

"Get to the Choppers"


Very Interesting pictures thanks for sharing them.

[sheroo]

Great Find with the SSB pics Raj. Where did u get them from. One thing I can never understand is why it was never integrated into the ITBP, I guess eventually. Initially it was called Special Security BUREAU and was more of intelligence gathering.

[rajkhalsa]

Yeah, I've done some more research on that. The SSB was originally the special operations arm of the Cabinet Secretariat. Their role, from what I gather, was different than the SFF, which was concerned with intelligence and and commando ops outside India's territory.

The SSB was tasked to with counter-insurgency intel and unconventional warfare against any invading force -- i.e. a special ops force that would stay behind in any invaded area and conduct active resistance with the population. This usually meant creating intelligence networks in border villages, equipping and training village defense forces, arming tribesmen, etc. They were used in the 60s and 70s to great effect against the Chinese, in Punjab in the 80s, and in Kashmir in the 90s.

As the force was tasked with more and more, it grew in size, and the special operations aspect of it became more and more diluted, and their role changed until it was just another paramilitary force, albeit one tasked with a specialized intelligence-centric role.

It got transfered to the Home Ministry and was tasked with guarding the Indian side of the Nepali and Bhutanese borders, as they are the prime enterences for terrorists, drug and criminal orgs, etc., and renamed Sashastra Seema Bal.

While many of its units are run-of-the-mill police/paramil units, there are some units that retain special operations capability, and that specialized active intel gathering role.

Cheers,
Raj

[rajkhalsa]

Well, speaking of the Special Frontier Force, how bout some vintage pics, which I doubt were posted before either:


^ SFF Patch. The SFF were originally raised as a crack-commando force of ethnic Tibetans and other hill peoples of India, and were used extensively in Tibet against China, and in the 1965 and 1971 wars.




^ Tibetan SFF Commandos in Bangladesh during the 1971 Bangladesh Liberation war.


^ SFF Commando, c. 1980. In the late 1980s, the SFF morphed into an elite SOF, with the Tibetans and Gorkha contingents becoming about half. It is one of India's premier counter-terrorism units, and incredibly secretive.

No pictures or much information about them have been released in 20 years, though they are known to be both highly active.


The National Security Guards are India's elite anti-terrorist unit. The Special Action Group. The NSG is divided between the Special Action Group (SAG) and the Special Rangers Group (SRG). The SAG is the offensive wing, with the members drawn from the Indian Army. The SRG, with members from central police organizations, supports the SAF in isolating target areas. They are also tasked with VVIP protection.


^ SAG, NSG Sniper c. early 1990s


^ SAG, NSG Commando c. early 1990s


Cheers,
Raj

[speckfire]

Thanks for the pics Raj, Sorry it took long but here is a pic of my
Indian Ishapore 1A1

[Turre]

Interesting pics and pieces of information!

Turre

[ranger75bn]

very nice and interesting pics rajkhalsa


tnx for sharing

Think Special
Act Special
Be Special

Very nice motto