First women team inducted into CRPF's CoBRA commando unit
Gurgaon: A maiden contingent of 34 CRPF women personnel was on Saturday inducted into its specialised jungle warfare commando force CoBRA, which will soon be deployed in the anti-Naxal operations grid of the country.
The Commando Battalion for Resolute Action (CoBRA) was raised under the CRPF in 2009 for undertaking intelligence-based jungle warfare operations. It has been an all-male affair for this unit till now.
The majority of CoBRA teams, whose commandos are expected to have tough mental and physical attributes, are deployed in various Maoist violence affected states while a few are based in the northeastern states for undertaking counter-insurgency operations.
A ceremonial event was held at the forces' camp in Kadarpur village here with CRPF Director General A P Maheshwari witnessing combat drills performed by the chosen women as he underlined that it was important to defeat gender-based beliefs and stereotypes.
The personnel, earmarked for CoBRA, have been chosen from the existing six all-women battalions of the force, a Central Reserve Police Force (CRPF) spokesperson said.
"These women will undergo a pre-induction training for three months and subsequently will be embedded with CoBRA units deployed in Naxal violence affected districts of Chhattisgarh like Sukma, Dantewada and Bijapur," the spokesperson said.
An all-women brass band of the country's largest paramilitary was also commissioned during the ceremony that was held to mark the 35th Raising Day anniversary of its first women battalion.
The first battalion, numbered 88, was raised this day in 1986 at a CRPF base in Delhi and the force now has six such units with just over 1,000 personnel in each.
They are deployed for rendering various kinds of law and order duties across the country. The CRPF also has an all-women pipe band that was raised in 2012.
Maheshwari lauded the women, saying they are an inspiration for numerous young girls who aspire to do good for themselves and the country. He said these combatants have proved that power is not in the muscles but in the head.
"I consider it the failure of leadership if someone says that one cannot do a work that is being done by the other. It is our responsibility to ensure that every effort is made to bring all the personnel to the same level of efficiency.
"Women warriors can use their strengths in the operational areas where the force is working," Maheshwari said addressing the troops.
He urged the women personnel to "make their place" in the families of those youth who have gone astray or away from the national mainstream and help in bringing them back.
He said the new age warfare is asymmetric, proxy, radicalisation-based, cyber-centric and has "shifted" from the geographical to the human terrain.
"ISIS (the banned global terror group) didn't require to physically cross the border but capture the mind of a Bengaluru techie (to carry out nefarious designs)...every citizen is a soldier and every soldier is a citizen," the CRPF chief said.
He said women personnel can also play an important role in countering the activities of "sleeper cells" and other such elements.
The CRPF, with a strength of about 3.25 lakh personnel, is designated as the lead internal security combat unit with its maximum deployment in three major theatres of Jammu and Kashmir, Left Wing Extremism affected states and insurgency-hit areas on India's northeast.
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45 sentenced to up to 10 years in prison in Hong Kong national security case
Hong Kong (AP): Dozens of prominent activists were sentenced to up to 10 years in prison on Tuesday in Hong Kong's biggest national security case under a sweeping law imposed by Beijing that crushed a once-thriving pro-democracy movement.
The defendants were prosecuted in 2021 for their roles in an unofficial primary election under the 2020 national security law. They were accused of attempting to paralyse Hong Kong's government and force the city's leader to resign by aiming to win a legislative majority and using it to block government budgets indiscriminately.
The 45 convicted received prison terms ranging from four years and two months to 10 years. Legal scholar Benny Tai was given the longest sentence.
They either pleaded guilty to or were found guilty of conspiracy to commit subversion by three government-approved judges. The judges said in the verdict that the activists' plans to effect change through the election would have undermined the government's authority and created a constitutional crisis.
Two of the 47 original defendants were acquitted.
Tai, who had written an article outlining "ten steps to mutual destruction" is widely seen as the organiser behind the unofficial primary. In a judgment uploaded online, the judges wrote that Tai essentially “advocated for a revolution” by publishing a series of articles over a period of months that traced his thinking, even though in his mitigation letter Tai said the steps were “never intended to be used as blueprint for any political action.”
Some defendants had claimed that the scheme to secure a majority of seats in the legislature would never have materialised, though the judges rejected this reasoning, stating that “all the participants had put in every endeavour to make it a success."
In the judgment, the judges highlighted that a great deal of time, resources and money had been put into the organisation of the primary election, and rejected the idea that the scheme had been “doomed to fail.”
“When the Primary Election took place on the 10 and 11 July, no one had remotely mentioned the fact that Primary Election was no more than an academic exercise and that the Scheme was absolutely unattainable,” the judgment read. “In order to succeed, the organisers and participants might have hurdles to overcome, that however was expected in every subversion case where efforts were made to overthrow or paralyse a government.”
The judges said the sentences had been reduced for defendants who said they were unaware the plan to secure a majority in the legislature and stall governance was unlawful.
However, the penalties were not reduced for Tai and Alvin Yeung, as they are lawyers who were “absolutely adamant in pushing for the implementation of the Scheme.”
Observers said the case illustrated how authorities suppressed dissent following huge anti-government protests in 2019, alongside media crackdowns and reduced public choice in elections.
The drastic changes reflect how Beijing's promise to retain the former British colony's civil liberties for 50 years when it returned to China in 1997 is increasingly threadbare, they said.
Beijing and Hong Kong governments insist the law is necessary for the city's stability.
The subversion case involves pro-democracy activists across the spectrum. They include Tai, former student leader Joshua Wong and former lawmakers. Most of them have already been detained for more than three and a half years before the sentencing. The separations pained them and their families.
As they pleaded for lesser sentences, some activists were remorseful and apologised while others remained defiant.
Lawyers for Tai and several other defendants argued their clients genuinely believed their actions were lawful at the time.
More than 200 people stood in line in moderate rain and winds Tuesday morning for a seat in the court, including one of the acquitted defendants Lee Yue-shun. Lee said he hoped members of the public would show they care about the development of the court case.
“The public's interpretation and understanding has a far-reaching impact on our society's future development,” he said.
A supporter locally known as “Grandpa Wong,” who did not know the English spelling of his name, said he wanted to see the convicted activists again. He is about 100 years old and feared he wouldn't be able to see them when they are released from prison.
Wei Siu-lik, a friend of convicted activist Clarisse Yeung, said she arrived at 4 am even though her leg was injured. “I wanted to let them know there are still many here coming here for them,” she said.
Thirty-one activists entered a guilty plea and have better chances of getting reduced sentences. The law authorises a range of sentences depending on the seriousness of the offense and the defendant's role in it, going from under three years for the least serious to 10 years to life for people convicted of “grave” offenses.
The unofficial primary in July 2020, which drew 6,10,000 voters, was meant to pick pro-democracy candidates who would then run in the official election.
The pro-democracy camp at that time hoped they could secure a legislative majority, which would allow them to press for the 2019 protest demands, including greater police accountability and democratic elections for the city leader.
But the government postponed the legislative election that would have followed the primary, citing public health risks during the COVID-19 pandemic.
