GUWAHATI:
Army personnel of India and Bangladesh, Asia’s two of the most frequent witnesses to terror strikes, will engage in a joint counter-terrorist training exercise at India’s Jungle Warfare School at
Vairengte
in
Mizoram and at the Joint Training Node at
Umroi
in
Meghalaya
from next week.
“The Indo-Bangladesh joint training exercise, SAMPRITI 2017 in its seventh edition will send a strong signal to the world that both India and Bangladesh understand the emerging threat of transnational terrorism and stand shoulder to shoulder united in countering this menace," defence PRO, Col C Konwer told TOI,
Exercise SAMPRITI is held alternately in India and Bangladesh every year with an aim to build and promote positive relations between the armies of the two neighbours. “It also aims to enhance interoperability between the two nations and enrich from each other’s experience while carrying out counter-insurgency or counter-terrorism operations,” the PRO said. The previous edition was held at Tangail in
Dhaka
last year.
This edition has two district components which include Command Post Exercise (CPX) and Field Training Exercise (FTX). The CPX will be conducted at Umroi over six days from November 6 to 11 whereas FTX will be conducted at Vairengte for 13 days from November 6 to 18.
“There will be 20 officers each from both the armies in the CPX as part of brigade and battalion command posts. The FTX would include the participation of one Infantry company each from the
Bangladesh Army
and elite Red Horns Division of the
Indian Army,” the PRO said.
He said that the CPX will focus on practicing joint planning and conduct of counter-terrorist operations in semi-mountainous terrain with a special focus on drills and procedures followed while operating in dense jungles. The FTX, on the other hand, will emphasise on physical conditioning, training on special heliborne operations, neutralisation of improvised explosive devices, cordon and search operations and company and platoon level tactical drills in counter-terrorist operations scenario, he added.