Chandigarh, April 25
The President's Bodyguard (PBG), largely a static unit for ceremonial duties at Rashtrapati Bhavan, has started deploying its personnel on counter-insurgency duties in Jammu and Kashmir and the North-East.
According to sources, the first two batches of the PBG began their stint a few weeks ago. One batch has been stationed near Srinagar airport while the other has been sent to Misamari in Assam.
Each batch consists of six men and deployment in these areas will be on a rotational basis for a two-year period. Although troops of the PBG, the Army's senior-most regiment, have taken part in wars and other military operations, this is for the first time they have been deployed on counter-insurgency and counter-terrorist duties.
The decision to deploy PBG personnel on such duties stems from an unsavoury incident in 2003, when four of its troopers were charged with the gang rape of a college student in Delhi and had raised questions about the unit's level of discipline and operational capabilities.
Although highly trained — every member being a skilled rider, paratrooper and tankman —the PBG is relegated to ceremonial duties. Army Headquarters had then felt that the soft nature of duties was having an adverse effect on the men and underlined the need for giving them more exposure and field experience.
Raised in 1773 at Benares by the then Governor-General of India, Warren Hastings, the PBG remained a select cavalry outfit for the personal and battlefield security of the Governor-General. During the First World War, it was deployed in the Middle East and Mesopotamia.
The PBG today comprises four officers and nearly 200 other ranks and 100 or so steeds, the only horses in the Army allowed to have the full mane. It is also equipped with armoured combat vehicles.
After Independence, the PBG rendered yeoman service in and around the Capital during the upheaval in the aftermath of Partition. The regiment saw action in the 1965 Indo-Pak war, when it took part in Operation Ablaze in the western theatre. Detachments from the PBG formed part of the Indian Peacekeeping Force in Sri Lanka and also of the Indian contingents deployed in Somalia and Angola as part of the United Nations peacekeeping missions. For the past 15 years, the PBG has also been sending a few men to Siachen, the world's highest battlefield.
Attired in scarlet tunics topped with blue and gold ceremonial turbans and holding lances flying red and white pennants, the PBG forms an integral part of all state functions, adding a touch of grandeur and dignity to ceremonies at Rashtrapati Bhavan.
