GUWAHATI: Eleven nations, including France and Italy, have sought India's permission to train their troops in guerilla warfare in the jungles of India's revolt-hit northeast, an Indian army official said yesterday.
Set up in 1970, the Counter Insurgency Jungle Warfare School in Vairengte in the northeastern state of Mizoram is considered one of the world's best anti-terrorist training institutions.
The school, whose motto is to "fight a guerilla like a guerilla," was established after Indian soldiers suffered heavy casualties at the hands of rebels active in India's northeast who specialise in hit-and-run strikes.
"France, Uzbekistan, Italy, besides some African countries, have made queries ... to get their soldiers trained here," a senior army official at the school said.
The last foreign soldiers who attended the school were US commandos who did three weeks of anti-insurgency combat training with Indian army instructors in April.
India first trained three US army officers in 2001, soon after the September 11 terror strikes in New York and Washington.
The school, which specialises in combatting rural and urban terrorist attacks, has also trained soldiers from Nepal, Nigeria and other countries while Britain has sought instructors' services to set up a similar institute there, the army official said.
India's northeast is home to about 30-odd rebel armies with demands ranging from greater autonomy to self-determination that anti-insurgency specialists say make it an ideal training ground.
More than 50,000 people have lost their lives to insurgency in the northeastern region since India's independence in 1947
http://www.gulf-daily-news.com/Story.asp?Article=89852&Sn=WORL&IssueID=27155
Set up in 1970, the Counter Insurgency Jungle Warfare School in Vairengte in the northeastern state of Mizoram is considered one of the world's best anti-terrorist training institutions.
The school, whose motto is to "fight a guerilla like a guerilla," was established after Indian soldiers suffered heavy casualties at the hands of rebels active in India's northeast who specialise in hit-and-run strikes.
"France, Uzbekistan, Italy, besides some African countries, have made queries ... to get their soldiers trained here," a senior army official at the school said.
The last foreign soldiers who attended the school were US commandos who did three weeks of anti-insurgency combat training with Indian army instructors in April.
India first trained three US army officers in 2001, soon after the September 11 terror strikes in New York and Washington.
The school, which specialises in combatting rural and urban terrorist attacks, has also trained soldiers from Nepal, Nigeria and other countries while Britain has sought instructors' services to set up a similar institute there, the army official said.
India's northeast is home to about 30-odd rebel armies with demands ranging from greater autonomy to self-determination that anti-insurgency specialists say make it an ideal training ground.
More than 50,000 people have lost their lives to insurgency in the northeastern region since India's independence in 1947
http://www.gulf-daily-news.com/Story.asp?Article=89852&Sn=WORL&IssueID=27155