Chennai: In a first of its kind, 20 Afghanistan women officers are in Chennai for a 20-day special military training programme, which began on December 4.
The officers are being trained in logistics, basic communication, weapon handling, leadership training and warfare tactics.
On Monday, at Officers Training Academy (OTA), which is the only centre for training cadets in the country, the Afghan officers were taught to handle an AK-47 at the shooting range. They had also undergone classroom simulation exercises on how to handle terrorist attacks in ambush, dry land and mountain terrains.
“The officers are in the ranks of Major, first and second lieutenant and belong to the age group of 21 to 40. Most of them speak Pashto or Dari. The women are finding the training programme interesting as they do not have much exposure to ammunition or military expertise in Afghanistan", said Sanjana J.R., one of the two Indian Army women officers, who are coordinating the training.
Anusha Nazari, an Afghanistan officer in the Special Forces pointed towards a mine-blast injury to her hand and said the internal situation often gets bad when the terrorists attack them.
“Except during combat and patrol, men and women work separately and the domination is huge. For each batch, there are 17 boys and 2 girls”, she said.
Another officer said that they would soon request the Indian army to make it a one-year programme, for better exposure and once the women go back to Afghanistan on December 24 (training gets over on December 23), the trained women would conduct special programmes back in their country.
A few women have enrolled in the armed forces but the Afghanistan officers say the women still fear coming out of their homes in a few parts of Afghanistan due to the presence of terrorism — the reason why they have come to undergo rigorous training in Chennai to strengthen the military.
