Nearly three decades after National Security Guard came into being, the war scenario and tactics have changed across the globe. As the toughest fighting force of the country prepares its men for any kind of battle, anywhere in the world, The Tribune gets rare access to his ‘holy land’ in Manesar(Haryana). Here, men challenge themselves before they are made to take on the enemy.

Let’s get up-close with it in Hollywood’s American Sniper: Wayne Kyle (to his sons): There are three types of people in this world: sheep, wolves, and sheepdogs. Some people prefer to believe that evil doesn’t exist in the world, and if it ever darkened their doorstep, they wouldn’t know how to protect themselves. Those are the sheep. Wayne Kyle: Then you’ve got predators who use violence to prey on the weak. They’re the wolves. Wayne Kyle: And then there are those blessed with the gift of aggression, an overpowering need to protect the flock. These men are the rare breed who live to confront the wolf. They are the sheepdog. Ironically, man learns only from strife, conflicts and failures. The hardest lesson comes when before overcoming an ‘enemy’; you overcome yourself. Usually, it’s the time when all odds are stacked against you, and you tell yourself convincingly, winningly: na dainyam, na palayanam (no begging for mercy, no escape). That’s when you steel yourself, becoming the protector — a ‘sheepdog’. There are men and women like that. In our country we call them Black Cats. They live to protect the innocents. They must not die: That’s their lesson number one. Brought up by the fiercely challenging ideal of ‘when the going gets tough, the tough get going,’ they learn to live off the terrain, breathe like a fish, sleep like a dog and attack like a thunderbolt. They are also called commandos of the elite National Security Guard (NSG). They are tasked to conduct counter-terrorism operations, including counter-hijacking, bomb disposal, post-blast investigation and hostage-rescue operations. They have the best of weapons for close combat such as MP5 A5 and A3 assault rifles, the Glock 19 pistols and many more which they would not like to disclose. They could be unarmed, but would respond to a crisis with the lethal power of their reflexes honed by Israel’s Krav Maga, Indian and Chinese martial arts.They compete with US Special Forces, Russia’s Spetsnaz, Israel’s Sayeret, UK’s SAS, Germany’s GSG-9 and others. They also train with the special forces of the Army, Garuds of the Indian Air Force and MARCOS of the Indian Navy. Commented an unnamed American observer after a joint session with the NSG: “Their (NSG’s) training is simply brutal.” What he meant was that NSG makes a super soldier out of an ordinary man.The NSG entrants are Army and paramilitary forces personnel who are among the best in their units, or they volunteer. They are made to undergo a three-month rigorous training at the NSG Training Centre in Manesar (Haryana). Only after passing three tests at the end of each month do they become NSG commandos. Here’s how their training schedule looks like: It was 10.30 pm on a cold December night last year. “Fall in,” roared an NSG instructor to the trainees. The 400 men stood in attention in front of their barracks, each in battle fatigue, carrying a haversack and a thick stick shaped as a rifle, weighing over 16 kg. A thick layer of fog blinded them as a cold wind whistles past. Everybody was exhausted, having been shaken awake from just two-hour sleep. Suddenly, they were drenched with cold water. This was their wake-up call. “The instructor ordered us to start running for 5km. The exercise continued for three grueling hours. A trainee was injured in his ankle and we had to carry him as well. We never leave our man behind,” remembers Major Vikram Singh (name changed on request). They all knew if a trainee fails, he is sent ‘home’. Singh trained with the NSG for the Commando Course from last October to December and is now serving with the federal counter-terrorism force.“This course breaks you,” said Vikram. “The idea is to dissolve the limits of your body and mind. You have to keep pushing yourself and tell yourself to try harder. Do whatever, but finish the course,” he says. There is no rest, he said. “Meals are supposed to be a break time, ideally, but an instructor can order you to run 10 km with your load, back and forth, to get a meal token and finish eating within an hour,” he said. Even sleep time fluctuates, and it can range for anything between 4 hours to two hours a day. At the firing range, they are taught with the NSG’s mainstay weapons. The targets are different; it could be a hostage. “Five points for the head. Three for the chest and two for the arm. Negative marking is given for shooting at the hostage,” says Major Akshay Rathore (name changed at request), the weapons instructor. The firing starts as early as 3.15 am and can last till 1 pm. “A commando has to train in every kind of weather. Training does not stop. If they have to be commandos, they will have to train in this heat and humidity as well,” said Akshay.Their instructors move and run with them, keeping a hawk’s eye on each activity, leading by example. Akshay addresses them: “Are you ready for the next activity?” he asks. “We are,” is the response from the assembly. There is a hint of tiredness to it, but at the same time powerful to motivate one into being battle ready. “Thoda hass lo! (laugh a little),” he says. Just graduating from the Commando Course does not mean the training is over. The two Special Action Group battalions used for counter-terrorism and anti-hijacking have a more intense training regime. One example is the “room intervention.” “We train them to be ready for anything. If they enter a house through a window, we place a mock bomb at the window sill or can place a target of a terrorist holding a person hostage with a gun,” said an officer.Havildar Mahender Yadav (name changed), whose parent unit is the Army Physical Training Corps, is among the finest NSG instructor. “When 50 men run on your every command, you feel the responsibility,” he says. “The proudest moment is when the trainees become commandos and request you to click a photo. They remember you when you meet them in their units. You remember them when they win medals,” says Mahender.

Bitter lessons

• Post 26/11: Former NSG DG JN Choudhury says the force must have a real-time, accurate intelligence such as the number of terrorists, their locations and the weapons they are using. Second is coordination with the state police.
• Post-Pathankot: NSG’s bomb disposal expert Lt. Col. Niranjan died after a grenade booby-trapped on a dead terrorist body exploded. This was owing to the fact that such an eventuality didn’t form a part of the Standard Operating Procedure (SOP).
• Lethal IEDs: India had the highest number of Improvised Explosive Device (IED) blasts in the world last year. Pakistan stood second, reveals the 2016 edition of the NSG journal, Bombshell. The need is for more specialists
• From Dhaka & Paris: NSG teams travelled to the two cities following terror attacks. The lesson from Dhaka was: “Hold back as long as talks are on. But the first shot must invite a decisive action.”