New Delhi, October 28

India’s elite counter-terror force NSG has been functioning without a regular military operations commander for the past six months, posing serious questions on the effectiveness of its combat readiness and planning in case of an impending contingency.

The special force has recently asked the Ministry of Home Affairs, under which it functions, to intervene and get an officer from the Army on board soon.

The post of Inspector General (Operations) is held by a Major General-rank officer on deputation from the Army, which, sources said, has been vacant since April after incumbent Maj Gen Shashank Mishra moved to his cadre on promotion.

In the NSG hierarchy, the counter-terror and counter-hijack commando units are placed under the overall command of IG (Operations), a post based in the NSG headquarters in Delhi.

The NSG Director General (DG), an officer from the Indian Police Service, is the top commander of the force.

Sources said as no new Maj Gen rank-officer has been posted to the NSG till now, another IG of the force (IPS officer) is holding the post in an additional capacity.

They said the non-availability of suitable officers from the Army has been the primary reason that the post is vacant.

While some officers prefer getting promoted in their cadre, in some cases they were not found suitable for the working of the NSG, that remains in combat readiness round-the-clock, they said.

The IG Operations is brought from the military as both the fighting units of the NSG-51 Special Action Group and 52 SAG are manned by officers and jawans from the Special Forces and infantry of the Indian Army and it requires a special bonding and coordination between the two to ensure seamless, precise and successful operational results.

NSG DG Sudeep Lakhtakia said while it is important to have a full-time IG (Operations), he had “complete faith” in the capabilities of his Deputy IG (Operations) and Force Commander (a Brigadier-rank officer) in keeping 24×7 readiness of the commandos.

In 2012, a similar situation occurred for about six months when there was no regular operations head in the ‘black cat’ commandos force. — PTI