HYDERABAD: The Sashastra Seema Bal (SSB), whose personnel guard India's borders with Nepal and Bhutan and participate in anti-Naxalite operations in Maoist-affected areas of Bihar and Chattisgarh and counter-insurgency operations in Jammu & Kashmir, has chosen Hyderabad to house its southern sector facility.
This is expected to bolster anti-Naxalite and internal security operations in Chattisgarh, Odisha, Andhra Pradesh and Telangana as the SSB's forces will be available for deployment at short notice. The SSB will be the second paramilitary force to have a facility in Hyderabad after the Central Reserve Police Force (CRPF).
Last week, SSB's director-general Archana Ramasundaram sent her DIG (Lucknow Frontier) D S Chauhan to Hyderabad for meetings with Telangana chief secretary S P Singh and director-general of police Anurag Sharma to discuss the facility.
Sources disclosed to New Indian Express that SSB is seeking 100 acres of land on the outskirts of Hyderabad.
''In principle, the Telangana government has agreed to allot 100 acres land to SSB. A formal proposal is being prepared. SSB's presence in Hyderabad will be advantageous to Telangana too as the state government will be able to utilise their services at short notice in case of any emergency.
The SSB intends to station one battalion (roughly 1,000 men) in the southern-centre,'' they said. The training centre will train SSB personnel in jungle warfare and counter-Naxalite operations. ''Telangana's anti-Naxal force Greyhounds will be available to train SSB personnel here,'' sources said.
While SSB is mainly tasked with guarding the 1,751-km Indo-Nepal and 699-km Indo-Bhutan borders, over the last few years it has been used for internal security duties as well.
One battalion of SSB is fighting Maoists in Bihar, another in Jharkhand while several hundred personnel have been deployed in Chattisgarh fighting Maoists alongside the CRPF. The SSB also has five battalions in Jammu and Kashmir.