New Delhi: Union Home Minister Amit Shah on Friday visited the CRPF headquarters here and reviewed the operational preparedness of the force along with senior officials.
Shah posted some photographs of the visit on his official Twitter handle and said the country is proud of the "exemplary valour" of the paramilitary force's personnel.
The Central Reserve Police Force (CRPF) has a strength of over 3-lakh personnel and is designated as the lead force for internal security duties and anti-naxal operations.
"CRPF personnel have always lived up to their motto of 'sewa' and 'nishtha' (service and dedication) by protecting our nation (while posted) at different terrains. I salute the courage and bravery of CRPF personnel and their families," Shah said in a tweet.
During his visit to the CRPF headquarters at the CGO Complex on Lodhi Road, Shah paid tributes to the force's personnel killed in the line of duty and put a garland around an urn containing the soil from the 'Sardar Post' in Gujarat's Rann of Kutch. The urn is kept at the headquarter's entrance In 1965, the force was tasked to secure the post in the wake of aggressive posturing by Pakistan.
On the intervening night of April 8 and 9 that year, 3,500 men of Pakistan's 51st Infantry Brigade, comprising the 18 Punjab Battalion, the 8 Frontier Rifles and the 6 Baluch Battalion, stealthily launched simultaneous assaults on the Sardar and Tak posts under an operation code-named "Desert Hawk".
The retaliation by the CRPF saw the numerically and armament superior Pakistan army retreating and leaving behind 34 bodies of their soldiers, including those of two officers.
Shah said the young generation should be made aware about this story of valour. The country will be "forever indebted" to the troops who made the supreme sacrifice, the minister said.
This was the first time Shah, who became home minister in the Modi government's second term, visited the head office of the country's largest paramilitary force.
The home minister was briefed about the CRPF's deployment and operations across the country. He reviewed its preparedness in Jammu-Kashmir and in naxal-violence affected states, officials said.
Shah was accorded the guard of honour on arrival and he spent over two hours at the CRPF headquarters. He took note and discussed various issues with senior officials, they said.
