The absence of a trained police force to quickly clamp down on mob violence is being felt acutely in Anantapur district where factional clashes are commonplace.
An incident that made the administration sit up and take notice of the situation was the 2018 clash between devotees of Prabhodananda Swamy and the followers of a political leader, with police personnel being reduced to mute spectators.
While there is a Rapid Action Force at the Central level, the reaction time gets delayed due to the gap in logistics and time lost in requisitioning the force for dealing with a law and order situation. The requisitioning is also a temporary measure as the force eventuallys leaves the place of deployment for its headquarters.
To overcome this lacuna, Superintendent of Police Busarapu Satya Yesubabu after assuming office here selected 60 agile personnel from among the 190 Special Party police personnel available with the Armed Reserve Police and District Police wings and began training them specifically in rioting crowd management and techniques of mob control or self defence using defensive gear, non-lethal weapons and regular weaponry at their disposal.
“It is basically due to lack of exposure to work together as a team to not allow the crowd to penetrate the RAF police cordon in any situation, that most failures happen. Brainstorming on how to deal with an aggressive crowd is paying dividends,” Mr. Satya Yesubabu told The Hindu.
The 60 personnel have been divided into two teams of 30 each and are being trained in mock rioting crowd management, while simulations are being done with some of the colleagues donning the role of an unruly mob.
Extended line formation of at least 10 personnel as a group during such operations was essential, said the SP, adding that it would ensure that these 10 RAF personnel stick together to not allow the crowd to penetrate through the police wall.
Innovative tactics
Some light-weight gear were being requisitioned, though some were available in meeting the needs during stone-pelting or attacks with sticks. A non-lethal colour grenade would also be used on the trouble-making group so that even if they manage to flee the scene and hide somewhere, the dye would colour their skin and clothes making it easy to identify them and book cases against them, Mr. Yesubabu added.
Now, the district need not wait for the Central forces in case of emergencies and the units stationed at Anantapur would be rushed to any corner.