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| Saturday, 25 October 2003 |
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Gang rape case sends presidential guards to the borders NEW DELHI, Friday (AFP) India's elite presidential guards, smeared by charges of gang raping a teenager in New Delhi, are likely to be deployed to the rugged borders to sharpen blunted combat skills, military officials said. The Presidential Body Guards (PBG), who have protected India's first citizens since 1950, will now replace their scarlet liveries with combat fatigues if sent for active duty on Kashmir's volatile borders, they said. The Indian army, however, denies any link between the PBG's widely-expected border tour and the arrest of four ceremonial guards for the gangrape, but conceded the men need "some disciplining" through battle station duties. Police arrested the four men on charges of raping the 17-year-old girl earlier this month in a popular joggers' park two kilometres (one mile) from the official home of President A.P.J. Abdul Kalam. The rape was committed while Tibetan spiritual leader the Dalai Lama was addressing his followers in the park, police say. "The assault is an infamy but the PBG's likely deployment cannot be linked to it as there was an old proposal to extend multi-faceted exposure to all armed combat corps," army spokesman Colonel Colonel Anil Shourie told AFP. "The PBG and other specialised cavalry forces are used for ceremonial purposes and international equestrian events... But on the other hand it is true they have had little exposure in combat operations," Shourie said. The spokesman, however, said the alleged involvement of the PBG unit in the gang rape could be a reflection of slipping military standards, stemming from the unit's sedentary lifestyle at the 340-room presidential palace. "A regular unit is very careful about its reputation while the PBG is used to city life and to some extent it makes sense to send them on active duty," he said. "Let us be very clear, these men have been spoiled rotten by good life and it is time to send them from their polo-grounds to the bunkers in Kashmir where discipline is key to survival," a commander said without wishing to be named. "If convicted these four men will bring terrible name to the entire PBG, an action which is undreamt of in a disciplined combat unit which acts as a single body," he said. |
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