BHUBANESWAR: Odisha Police on Friday raised a special unit - Odisha Swift Action Force (OSAF) - which will be deployed at sensitive locations during major events across the State. The OSAF consists of 324 officers and personnel who have been selected from Odisha Special Armed Police (OSAP) and trained at Rapid Action Force (RAF) Academy in Uttar Pradesh and Madhya Pradesh.
The OSAF observed its first raising day at the OSAP Seventh Battalion Ground here on the day. Apart from combat, the new unit has been trained to deal with riot-like situations, crowd control, rescue and relief operations as well as public unrest.
“The forces have been trained at RAF Academy in Bhopal and Meerut. The unit will be kept ready for rapid mobilisation and deployment whenever the situation demands,” Police DG KB Singh said. OSAF men are equipped with special combat weapons and separate uniform. They will usually not be deployed at a particular location for a longer duration, he added.
Currently, the OSAF will have three companies stationed at Cuttack, Rourkela and Balasore. Each company comprising 108 personnel will be manning Central, Northern and Eastern Police Ranges. The special force is likely to be enhanced with more resources by the end of this year, sources said.
The OSAF will be deployed at Puri along with Special Operations Group (SOG) and Special Tactical Unit (STU) for the Rath Yatra which begins on Sunday. The primary objective of the force would be to ensure smooth and incident-free conduct of the Car festival.
On Friday, Chief Minister Naveen Patnaik inducted OSAF into the State Police. The raising ceremony was accompanied with a guard of honour and mock drill by the three companies of the special force. Among others, Additional Chief Secretary, Home Department Asit Tripathy and Additional DG Police (OSAP) B Radhika were present.