Following the death of lt-Col Niranjan Kumar after all the terrorists were nutralised during Pathankot operation from January 2 to 5, the elite counter-terror force National Security Guard (NSG) is revisiting its Standard Operating Procedures (SOPs). Apart from other things, the force will revise the strategy to handle bodies of slain terrorists.
As per the existing SOPs for sanitising bodies of slain terrorist, a commando with a bomb suit is supposed to approach the body and fix a hook to it attached with long rope. With the help of the rope, the body is moved left and right, and if there is a booby trap it explodes in the process.
In the Pathankot operation, all the SOPs were followed. “However, there was a grenade concealed tightly inside a pouch. The pin of the grenade had already been removed by the terrorist. As soon as the pouch was opened, the grenade went off claiming Kumar’s life,” NSG Director General RC Tayal told The Pioneer on the sidelines of an international seminar on ‘Improvised Explosive Device’ which was attended by experts and law enforcement agencies from 13 countries.
Tayal emphasised that “the incident happened as the terrorists also keep on changing their tactics to outsmart us.”
“We are taking measures so that incident like the one in which lt-Col Kumar was martyred does not repeat,” he said.
The DG added once the revised SOPs were in place, the modules of training for the commandos will also undergo change. “We have learnt some lessons during Pathankot operation and will soon revise the SOPs on how to handle bodies of slain terrorists,” Tayal said.
The revised SOPs, the DG said, will include guidelines on ways to detonate booby traps like grenades and IEDs found on the bodies of slain terrorists.
“The revised SOPs will also bar carrying mobile phones during operation,” said Tayal who had supervised the Pathankot operation in which the terrorists had engaged the security agencies for nearly two days.
“There was no negligence on the part of the NSG team and they followed the SOPs,” the DG said.
Explaining the circumstances leading to Niranjan’s tragic death, Tayal said Kumar was leading from the front to retrieve the bodies. Three bodies were pulled out successfully with a rope and hook. However, the body of the fourth terrorist turned out to be a booby trap, he added.
“It was when Niranjan tried to pull out a pouch containing grenade from the terrorist’s jacket, there was a ‘click’ sound. Some NSG commandos immediately alerted the officer to throw the grenade but it was too late. The grenade went off in his hand and his lungs got punctured leading to his death on the spot,” the NSG DG said.
“It was a booby trap and the terrorist was successful in his mission even in death. The revised SOPs will make it clear that a commando will search the body of a terrorist wearing protection gear like bomb suit,” another senior NSG official said.
Tayal said NSG’S Bomb Disposal Squad had higher “inherent” risk and said it was written on the jacket wore by the team — “We make mistakes once”.
“It was an unfortunate incident and Niranjan did not expect that the grenade will go off. He was an excellent officer,” he said, adding he had been involved in recovery of tonnes of explosives in Rajasthan, Burdwan and Patna.
