Click to play videoHindon Airbase (Ghaziabad): The Cabinet Committee on Security (CCS) which met in New Delhi on Thursday decided that Indian Air Force (IAF) helicopters will not be used in combat operations against Naxals but only for relief and rescue.
However, IAF helicopters operating in Naxal-hit areas will be protected by Special Forces commandos on board. The commandos have been authorised to open fire in case the IAF helicopters come under Naxal attack.
CCS' decision comes on day when the IAF turned 77 years old and held a massive display of its latest planes at the Hindon Airbase in Ghaziabad near New Delhi.
At the IAF Day Parade the newly-acquired force multiplier and India's first AWACS was supposed to the attention grabber.
But the spotlight turned to the growing involvement of a reluctant military in countering Left-wing terror.
"In the helicopters we will be mounting guns. They will be manned by Garud Force which is our expert force and they are the people who will be undertaking this," said IAF Chief Air Chief Marshal PV Naik.
The Mi-17 IV helicopter will be increasingly used by the IAF to assist police and paramilitary forces in operations against Naxals. For the anti-Naxals opertaion the Mi-17 IVs will be specially equipped with armour to protect itself from hostile Naxal fire.
The IAF will not launch direct operations against the Naxals and so the rockets mounted on the helicopters will not be fired at the Naxals.
The military is wary of the strains and pitfalls of taking on Naxals in direct combat.
"It is not a free for all. It is not like Rambo where you go and fire all over the countryside. No. There are very stringent stipulations," said Air Chief Marshal Naik.
"I am totally against the armed forces - the Army, Navy and Air Force being used in internal situations," added the IAF Chief.
The decision also marks the entry of elite Special Forces in the state's combat against Naxalism.
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