Special Wing

Punjab State had faced terrorism during 1981 to 1993. During this period, the militants in Punjab acquired higher fire power, disastrous explosives and most sophisticated communication equipment and hi-tech tools to upgrade their sinister activities. It became necessary to scientifically examine all the acquisition of militants, evaluate threat perception, educate the fighting force from the dangers and suggest the up gradation of fighting facilities to the force. In April 1990, the Director General of Police, Punjab envisioned and setup a Special Wing under a Deputy Inspector General of Police (DIG), supported by forensic scientists and other experts.

This Wing took up systematic assessment of operational skills of various militant groups to ascertain the sophistication level achieved by them. Special Wing established working alliance with universities, national laboratories and different research facilities of DRDO all over the country. This overall study of terrorists' phenomenon from sophistication angle led to a thorough assessment of threat levels posed by militants, as well as, the deep involvement of an agency of neighboring country in arming the Punjab militants with dangerous range of weaponry, explosives, ultra modern communication system and hi-tech tools.

This evaluation was collated and disseminated to the right quarters of operational, monitoring as well as planning levels in police and other wings of government involved in the fight against terrorism. It was this detail enlightenment briefing of police and paramilitary forces regarding the extent of threat faced by them, which lead to their logistic as well as operational planning thrust at the right time and in the right direction.

This constructive role played by one of the D.I.Gs and a Forensic Scientist in management of controlling terrorism is a unique, Nobel and unparalleled experiment in India which proved to be immensely successful, not only in evaluation but stood up well in research and development for logistic support also. Very senior police officers took keen interest and extended guidance and provided facilities to the Special Wing to meet the requirement of Punjab Police and developed and designed a number of gadgets which have been found quite useful in combating terrorism. More importantly, cost effectiveness and cost reduction were achieved in a big way.

Special wing has carried out research in the optical, electrical and electronic fields along with contributing on bullet proofing materials viz a steel, glass, cavelar and poly carbonate. A few of the items designed/developed are:

1. Simple and panel periscope
2. Protecting viewing window
3. Riot control shields
4. IR filter glass torch
5. IR filter head lights and parking lights
6. Parabola sound enlarger
7. Mechanical clock detector
8. Electronic timer detector
9. Poison detection kit
10. Home made bullet proof jackets
11. Bullet proof mobile morchas
12. Bullet proof and bomb resistant mobile morchas
13. Bullet proofing of vehicles
14. Explosion Scene Examination Kit
15. Ammunition Evaluation

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