Tripura troopers to be deployed for Haryana polls

Agartala, Sep 29: Five companies of Tripura State Rifles (TSR) troopers will be deployed in Haryana to facilitate peaceful state assembly elections Oct 15, an official said on Monday.

"Around 500 TSR personnel led by Commandant Bijoy Debbarma will leave Wednesday for Haryana," a Tripura home department official told IANS.

He said: "The TSR personnel will be posted in Haryana according to the direction of the Election Commission and will remain in the state until the electoral processes are over."

The official said the TSR troopers will likely be also posted in Jharkhand, where assembly elections might be held in November or December.

"Beside providing security during Commonwealth Games in New Delhi in 2010, the India Reserve (IR) battalions of TSR were earlier sent to Bihar, West Bengal, Assam, Madhya Pradesh, Rajasthan, Chhattisgarh, Jharkhand, Nagaland and Mizoram to provide security during polls," the official said.

The TSR battalions, trained for counter-insurgency operations, were constituted in March 1984 to deal with terrorism. Seventy-five percent of their troopers are from Tripura while the remaining are from across the country.

There are 12 TSR battalions in the state, of which nine are India Reserve battalions, which means they can be deployed anywhere in India by the home ministry. The central government has approved the raising of three more TSR battalions.

"The TSR has been modelled on the pattern of Border Security Force and Assam Rifles. It has played an important role in curbing four and a half decades old terrorism in Tripura," the official said.

IANS