E-Paper
CISF commandos take to online videos to hone their skills
The commandos of the quick reaction teams (QRT) of the CISF are these days practising their daily drills through tutorial videos sent to them by their supervisors over smartphones.
For these Central Industrial Security Force (CISF) men, mornings have changed.
The early morning whistles, which beckoned them to the parade ground for physical exercise training or to the armoury for weapons training, has been missing ever since the raging Covid-19 pandemic started taking a toll in Delhi-NCR.
The commandos of the quick reaction teams (QRT) of the CISF are these days practising their daily drills through tutorial videos sent to them by their supervisors over smartphones.
From assembling weapons to use of bomb-detecting equipment and from yoga tutorials to cardio exercises as a substitute to their daily running drills, the videos explain everything. These videos promptly land every morning at the usual training time, with the commandos expected to follow them and practice while staying inside their barracks.
The commandos even record their own videos, practising physical training, and send it back to their supervisors in-charge.
At present, the Central force — that has around 20,000 personnel guarding Delhi Metro, IGI airport and government buildings in Delhi — has recorded 79 positive cases of Covid-19. All the infected jawans are either in isolation at the force’s facility in outer Delhi’s Narela or have been sent to AIIMS Jhajjar, Haryana, for treatment.
In Delhi Metro, CISF has 110 QRTs, each having six personnel. Another senior officer said because Metro operations are shut, only 30% strength of QRTs is being used. “We are deploying them on alternate days so that chances of infection are less and we have a backup team ready at any given time,” the second officer said.
Ever since a nationwide lockdown was put in place in March this year to contain the spread of Covid-19, and operations of Delhi Metro shut, these CISF men were pulled out and sent to different barracks across the city to ensure social distancing. Since the lockdown, only minimum strength of personnel, including the QRTs, is being used for the security of Metro stations.
Metro services in Delhi have remained suspended since March 22, when the Janta curfew was observed. While other modes of public transport have been allowed, with restrictions, during the gradual easing of lockdown norms, Metro services continues to remain shut for now.
Senior officers said the tutorial videos are being circulated among the QRTs because these commandos haven’t undertaken any rigorous physical activity or arms training since the last week of March owing to restrictions put in place as part of safety guidelines to contain the spread of coronavirus.
“The assembly of these commandos is not possible for their regular training sessions, like earlier, on a daily basis. So we have started circulating videos. While videos of stripping and assembling of weapons, which they can watch and revise, are sent thrice a week, videos of Krav Maga, the martial arts they are trained in are sent every day along with videos of physical training,” said a senior officer, who wished not to be named.
The officer said QRTs are made up of the best of the best commandos and they have the minimum reaction time to any situation. “We train our men and women in QRTs to strip and assemble an INSAS rifle in 20 seconds. For an AK-47 they take about 30 seconds and only 8-10 seconds for a Glock pistol. Because their training sessions have been suspended, the tutorial videos help them refresh and revise the procedure at least three times a week, like earlier,” the officer said.
Similarly, videos of bomb-detecting equipment are also sent to the commandos so that they remember the technicalities.
The officer said that this is important so that their response time is not affected. He added that apart from tactical training, because the commandos can’t go for their daily run, they are sent videos of yoga sessions and cardio exercise everyday which can be an absolute substitute for running. “They have been asked to practice their daily physical training on their own. We also randomly ask them to send us their recordings while practising physical exercises to keep a check on them,” the officer added.
