The brave men, and increasingly women, who serve in the CRPF have begun to read the acronym as the ‘Chalte Raho Pyare Force’. It expresses their exasperation and fatigue at the heavy and persistent burden of internal security that the CRPF bears, rushing its companies across the country from one flash point to another. Railway platforms across the country regularly bear witness to these jawans struggling to catch up on sleep while dashing between one hot spots. With increasing commitments across the country, vital organisational norms of training and rotation are seldom observed and within the force, postings at group centres located in supposedly peaceful areas such as the one in Rampur, Uttar Pradesh are much sought after. Families are briefly united; children and other neglected responsibilities are attended to without fear of missing a train or dodging a bullet. Not any more.

The terror strike in the early hours of 2008 at the CRPF Group Centre has shattered the lives of all the families of the jawans and civilians who were killed, and a lot else. For the CRPF, the incident has very publicly raised embarrassing questions about how in spite of apparent early warning from different sources, security at the Centre was caught unprepared. But more so, the incident has shaken all of us — both within and outside the police — who are concerned about the safety and well being of fellow Indian citizens. Rampur is not Kupwara or Dantewara or Guwahati, places safely far away that routinely figure in the news and are normally permanent fixtures on the terror map of India. It is very much the heart of the Hindi heartland. And yet today it stands at the frontline of terror. What next? Pretty soon we’ll be teaching our children new ways to learn the alphabet.

... contd.