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Para (Special Forces) is a special forces unit of the Indian Army's Parachute Regiment and is tasked with missions such as special operations, direct action, hostage rescue, counter-terrorism, unconventional warfare, special reconnaissance, foreign internal defense, counter-proliferation, counter-insurgency, seek and destroy and personnel recovery. The unit's heritage stems from World War II, with the creation 50th Parachute Brigade in October 1941. == History == The parachute units of the Indian Army are among the oldest airborne units in the world. The 50th Indian Parachute Brigade was formed on 27 October 1941, comprising the British 151st Parachute Battalion, and the British Indian Army 152nd Indian Parachute Battalion and 153rd Gurkha Parachute Battalion.〔(Parachute Regiment, India ) on GlobalSecurity.org〕 The Parachute Regiment was formed from these and several other units in 1952. In 1944 the 50th was allocated to the newly founded 44th Airborne Division. In the post-independence restructuring, India retained only one parachute brigade—the 50th. This brigade consisted of three distinguished battalions personally nominated by the then C-in-C, namely 1 PARA (Punjab), 2 PARA (Maratha) and 3 PARA (Kumaon). During J&K operations of 1947-48 these battalions had distinguished themselves with glory in the battles of Shelatang, Naushera, Jhangar and Poonch, wherein they were awarded the respective Battle Honours. On 15 April 1952, the three battalions serving with the Parachute Brigade were taken away from their respective Infantry Regiments to form the Parachute Regiment. Since then the Parachute Regiment has grown to comprise ten battalions including Parachute (Special Forces) battalions. In that while, 8 PARA became a Mechanised Infantry Battalion, 21 PARA (Special Force) joined us from Maratha LI. During their short but eventful existence so far, battalions of the regiment have had extensive operational experience and singular achievements to speak of their level of professionalism. During the Indo-Pakistani War of 1965, an ''ad hoc'' commando unit, named Meghdoot Force, consisting of volunteers from various infantry units was organized by then Major Megh Singh of the Brigade of the Guards. The unit performed well in combat and the Government authorized the formal raising of a commando unit. Lt Col Megh Singh was selected to raise the unit which was originally intended to be a part of the Brigade of the Guards. However, recognizing parachute qualification as an integral element of special operations, the unit was transferred to the Parachute Regiment and raised as its 9th Battalion (Commando) on 1 July 1966. The erstwhile members of the Meghdoot Force formed the nucleus and the new unit was based in Gwalior. In June 1967 the unit was split equally into two to form a second commando unit, designated as 10th Battalion, both with three Companies each. 10th Battalion was mandated to operate in the Western Desert and 9th Battalion in the northern mountains. In 1969, these battalions were redesignated as 9 and 10 Para (Commando) battalions.〔 In 1978, the 1 Para, as an experiment, was converted to become the first special forces unit of the Indian army and was kept as the tactical reserve. Already a recipient of the Chief of Army Staff Unit Citation twice and GOC-in-C Eastern Command Unit Citation once, the unit was originally 1 Punjab which was later re designated as 1 PARA (PUNJAB) and in 1978 was converted to 1 PARA (SF). The unit is well over 200 years old. On 15 January 1992, the Parachute Regiment Training Centre along with the Records and PAO(OR), the Para Regiment moved to Bangalore and occupied the erstwhile location of Pioneer Corps and Training Centre. Bangalore is the new Key Location Project of the Centre.〔http://www.indianparachuteregiment.kar.nic.in/history.htm〕 1995 saw the formation of the fourth commando battalion when 21 Maratha Light Infantry was selected to convert to special forces and slated for the Eastern Command. After stringent selection and training process that spanned more than a year, on 1 February 1996, the unit under Col VB Shinde, was formally inducted as the 21st Battalion (Special Forces), The Parachute Regiment. The unit has done well in its short lifespan and is the proud recipient of the Chief of Army Staff Unit Citation twice (1992 and 2006) and GOC-in-C Eastern Command Unit Citation once (2008) among a host of individual gallantry awards. With the changing scenario in military operations and the need for more special forces units, 2 Para began the conversion process from parachute to special forces role, followed closely by the 3 Para and the 4 Para in the year 2004 and 2005 respectively. The attempt did see a little success the reason it failed to achieve its goal was due to the stringent selection process. 抄文引用元・出典: フリー百科事典『 ウィキペディア（Wikipedia）』 ■ウィキペディアで「Para (Indian Special Forces)」の詳細全文を読む スポンサード リンク
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