Mumbai: The Maharashtra police is scouting the global markets in search of weapons to suit its requirements in the wake of the November 26-29, 2008 terror attacks in Mumbai and two major ambush on police parties in Naxalite-infested Gadchiroli district.
Different teams of police would visit Israel, the United States, the United Kingdom, other European countries, China and South Africa. A team has already visited Israel. The teams would meet officials of security agencies and visit exhibitions, conferences and expositions. "We want to complete this exercise within two months and then order our requirements after a comparative analysis," highly-placed police officials said.
The teams that would visit these countries would basically have a look at different types of weapons, study their training module, their usage of different gadgets and learn from their experience.
Asked about our requirements, the official said: "Firstly we need to have the best to as far as urban warfare is concerned in the wake of the 26/11 incident and secondly, we also have to arm ourselves to the teeth in view of the incidents in the Naxalite areas."
"During these interactions, the police officers would interact with their counterparts and learn from their counter-terrorism experience," said an official.
After the fidayeen attack, the Maharashtra Government has decided to upgrade its weaponry besides raising Force 1, a crack commando unit, which is being raised on the lines of National Security Guard. This commando team would be equipped with state-of-the-art weapons, communication units and accessories.
Prior to these visits, several big weapon manufacturers and security across the globe had called on officials since the past six months and gave presentations. "Terrorism and Naxalism are major challenges before us. In Maharashtra, we are facing both these problems and now we need to have weapons that would suit our needs most and be the best," the official said.
When these teams come here, there would be several debriefing sessions where in different aspects and the salient points of these visits would be studied and analyzed in detail. "We would also have to work out the costs and do a analysis of that as well, before the orders are placed or tenders are invited," said the official.
It may be recalled that the two-member committee comprising former Union Home Secretary RD Pradhan and a former official of R&AW V Balachandran, had expressed serious concern over the present inventory. "Availability of arms and ammunitions for Maharashtra police is a serious problem ...," it has observed.
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