HYDERABAD: The Hyderabad police’ latest special wing, City Rapid Action Force (CRAF), which had undertaken election-related security arrangements in the recently concluded Assembly elections, is set to field its personnel in sensitive localities in the city ahead of the Lok Sabha polls.
Speaking to Express, a senior police official said that the CRAF, also comprising women commandos, has been launched to deal with riots, riot-like situations, crowd control, rescue and relief operations, and poll related unrest.
“We had utilised the services of CRAF in the Assembly elections and the performance of the wing was good. With the Lok Sabha elections around the corner, we have provided special training to officials in controlling security during elections. We will deploy CRAF commandos at selected sensitive and hyper-sensitive areas based on requirement,” a senior police officer said.
Comprising a total of 40 members, the wing has 20 young women personnel, who have been trained at the City Armed Reserve (CAR) headquarters.
The Hyderabad city police officials seemed confident about the performance of the CRAF in the upcoming elections.
The members of the wing have undergone practical training in controlling emergencies like riots and agitations. Keeping the polls in mind, election-related security arrangements too were added to their training programme.
Elaborating on the training procedure, the police officials who manage training sessions said that the wing has been equipped with non-lethal weapons for dispersing the crowd with minimum harm and losses. The CRAF are kept ready at all times for rapid deployment depending on the situation.
The wing will be deployed only on the orders of the Commissioner of Police to undertake specific duties, and are normally not deployed for long durations. During elections, the police officials would utilise the services of the wing to maintain law and order during the polling and counting processes.
The CRAF is prepared exclusively for handling communal violence, undertaking law and order duties, festival and election duties and managing agitations. The wing usually use methods like issuing warnings, employing tear gas shells and water cannons, initiating lathi-charge and others to manage violence, agitations or riot-like situations.
The CRAF was officially launched on September 15, 2018 by the Hyderabad police and were deployed to undertake duties in the Assembly polls.