Rajesh Khurana, an Indian Police Service officer posted in the Central Reserve Police Force (CRPF), has been given the command of the CoBRA Sector. Rajesh Khurana is a 1994 batch officer of the AGMUT cadre of the Indian Police Service. Presently IG rank police officer Mr. Khurana joined CRPF, as deputation posting , last year. Prior to that, Rajesh Khurana was the Special Commissioner in Delhi Police.
IPS Officer Rajesh Khurana has recently taken charge of the Commando Battalion for Resolute Action (CoBRA) sector. Till now IPS Dr. Maheshwar Dayal was the IG in charge of this sector. CoBRA battalions were formed for operations like guerrilla and jungle warfare. Initially , there were 2 battalions of CoBRA during the year 2008 – 2009 which has been increased to 10 till 2011 . Durga Prasad was the first in-charge of this sector.
The cobra battalions , formed after the approval of the Ministry of Home Affairs, are specially deployed for the operations in Naxalite affected areas in the states of Madhya Pradesh, Chhattisgarh, Odisha, Maharashtra, Andhra Pradesh, West Bengal, Jharkhand etc. These are rural areas with tribal populations and with dense forests.Therefore, CoBRA commandos are trained separately for operations in these areas. These CoBRA commandos are also called jungle warriors. Operations in these areas are very sensitive, extremely risky and hence of dangerous level. This is the reason that the level of courage, strength and patriotism in the commandos posted here is also very high.
Being in charge of the CoBRA sector is also a challenging task because of the involvement of vast areas and that too in different states . He has to coordinate at various levels whether at Centre level or among different state administrations. CoBRA battalions of CRPF have achieved many achievements in dealing with Naxalite violence, but for this its many commandos paid heavy price. Many of them had to sacrifice their lives. There are also a large number of such commandos who got severely injured and are facing permanent disability. Some of them even lost their limbs. There are many occasions when anti-naxalite operations were criticized and the force had to face the ire of locals as well as of politicians. Such controversies are all together a different kind of challenge that the officers have to deal with.
