Thaindian News

Panaji, May 7 (IANS) The Indian Navy’s Marine Commandos (Marcos) will train Goa policemen in counter-terror operation techniques, a top police official said Saturday.

Speaking to reporters shortly after launching ‘Sheshnag’, a marine commando squad of Goa Police at the Customs jetty in the city, Director General of Police (DGP) Bhim Sain Bassi said that over the next two years nearly 1,000 out of the 5,000-strong Goa Police would be trained in counter-terror combat skills.

“Ten boys from the marine commando squad will be trained (by the navy’s Marcos) at INS Mandovi (naval base in Goa). They will also go through a toughening process,” Bassi said.

Marcos have been deployed in the Indian Navy’s anti-piracy operations in the past and they were also seen in action during the Mumbai terror attack in 2008.

The DGP said that over the last few years, several batches of Goa police personnel trained with elite forces specialising in anti-terror and anti-insurgency tactics like Andhra Pradesh Police’s specialist anti-Maoist commando force Greyhounds and Maharashtra Police’s elite commando force to fight terror Force One.

“We have already trained with several batches of the Greyhounds and Force One. We will be sending a batch to Mussoorie (Uttarakhand) to train with the Indo-Tibetan Border Police (ITBP) in martial arts,” he said, adding that much larger batches of more than 400 policemen would be trained at such elite policing and defence institutions.