Team India out but NSG still guards CWC against terrorist attacks

Team India may have ended its woeful sojourn at the World Cup in Caribbean before the Super Eight stage, but elite commandos of the National Security Guard (NSG) are still here guarding the whole tournament against any possible terrorist attacks.

Contrary to the popular perception that NSG came for the security of only the Indian team, they are here for the entire tournament not only to protect the showpiece event from any external threats but also liase with regional security force.

Till Tuesday, the 16-member commando unit was divided into two groups of eight people and one group was positioned at Guyana and another was at Antigua where the Super Eight matches were being played.

Now the elite guards have moved on to Grenada and Barbados with the change of venues. Lt Col Rathod and Lt Col Rakesh are commanding these two groups.

Although they are not supposed to speak to the media, but on condition of anonymity the commandos revealed that they check the stadium twice a day.

Even on the non-match days they carry out thorough security drill of the whole stadium before the players start arriving for net practice.

On match days they take vantage positions and monitor the proceedings. Armed with latest weapons as well as computers besides bomb detecting devices, the Commando force was specially flown in from India at the request of the CARICOM authorities.

However, the specially trained sniffer dogs of NSG were not allowed to brought in because of strict quarantine policies of any animals brought from different countries to any Caribbean countries.

The commandos admitted that they had been facing problems in transportation amongst these island countries.

''As the commercial planes are very small ATRs we have to come through service planes of the host countries. They are quite scary but we had to use them as we have to move with both weapons as well as a dog squad of Trinidad & Tobago,'' said one of the commandos.

They, however did not foresee any possible external threat but admitted that at Guyana local crime scenario was something to take note of. ''The way the police force move with heavy arms during the normal policing, you can make out the ground position,'' said the commando who asked not to be named.

The fooding remains a problem for the unit as their staple diet of rice and roti are not found anywhere in the Caribbean.

''But the people are good and they know how to enjoy the game,'' said another commando, expressing surprise over how the dignitaries of the Caribbean countries move so freely.

''The President of Guyana Bharat Jagdeo was moving around in the stadium with just one security guard. It is unbelievable,'' he added.

They are, however, sad that India is not around to keep them in high spirits.

UNI MT SAM VV1737

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