IRB unit of Kerala police bags national-level recognition

THIRUVANANTHAPURAM: In a proud moment, the India Reserve Battalion (IRB) at Thrissur, a special unit of the state police that also trains commandos, has been chosen by the Union home ministry as the best in its category among those in the southern states.
The IRB, established in 2010, is a reserve unit as well as recruits and trains commandos - a concept that came very late to the state police when compared to several other states.The unit's achievement is significant given that it competed in its category with established units like the Greyhounds of Andhra Pradesh and Telangana that was established at least two decades before IRB.
The unit set up with the Centre's assistance two divisions -the commandos popularly known as Thunderbolts that have been engaging Maoists in the jungles of the state borders, and the Scorpions, which are regular members who are detailed for emergency law and order duties, VVIP security duties, anti-extremist duties, emergency natural calamity duties, etc. Presently, there are 960 members in the unit, which also includes 300 members under the special operations group (SOGs), 100 newly-carved urban commandos named Avengers and a 50-member team deployed for special security at Padmanabhaswamy Temple in the capital.
"The training programs for IRB recruits are frequently updated, and even with limited resources we try to provide our best when it comes to offering training. The Thunderbolts are actively engaged in combing operations in the jungle, while the Avengers frequently undertake recce at several vital installations in major cities and towns like Kozhikode, Thrissur, Kochi and Thiruvananthapuram," said Vivek Kumar, who was till recently the commandant of the battalion and who also presented the unit's achievements for national competition.
Just within a decade since inception by carving out the unit from what used to be a detachment camp of Malabar Special Police in Pandikkad, IRB grew as a successful training unit even providing training to Karnataka Special Task Force (KSTF) that was established in the early 1980s to nab notorious forest brigand Veerappan.
The training facilities have been enhanced to synchronize with the increasing security threats to the extent that the unit now boasts of even an advanced facility to detect and diffuse improvised explosive devices (IEDs). "The IED training includes an IED demonstration room where the commandos are taught about 36 types of IED trigger mechanisms and an IED park, that has demo IEDs concealed at places that will explode if the commandos make a wrong move, used for their field training," said Navneet Sharma, also a former commandant of the unit.
The unit has set up solar panels for deriving a major portion of the power required for the units, which was appreciated at the national level.