Cordon and Search Flashcards
What is the modus operandi of hostiles?
Modus Operandi of Hostiles
• Purpose of Visit-
Hostile visit villages for food, shelter and information about security forces, propaganda, recruiting, tax collection, meet their family and relatives and so on
• Hostile Tactics
(a) Contact Man. (b) Security.
What are the actions of hostiles to ensure their security?
(i) They do not visit unfriendly villages.
(ii) Hostiles do not move in uniforms and carry weapons openly in Villages.
(iii) Hostiles normally enter the village after last light and depart before first light. But this greatly depends on the pattern of operation of the SF, e.g. if the SF operate at night, then they visit the village at day and vice versa.
(iv) When there is danger of being apprehended, hostile might fire a few shots to cause confusion among the SF and make good their escape. If they fail in their bid to escape, they mix up with the locals or hide in nearly places in the villages.
(v) Villagers are sent out as sentries to unobtrusively signal the approach of SF.
What are the points to consider regarding information in CASO?
Information
(a) Hostile - Following information of hostile will be of help:
(i) The strength and identification of hostile.
(ii) The place they are going to stay and the duration of stay.
(iii) Their security arrangements.
(iv) Their likely escape routes.
(v) Motive of their visit.
(vi) Weapons they possess.
(b) Information about Village.
Detailed information regarding size of village, the layout, number of houses, dominating features, likely escape routes, area around the village general going and likely ambush sites must be available to carry out the operation effectively.
(c) Information about Population.
To enable effective screening of a village a list of the population by houses, hostile sympathizers, pro-government persons, hostile families, the attitude towards the population and SF, the important men in the village like the village chief, religious head and headmaster should be obtained.
What is the organization of CASO?
(a) Cordon Party.
(b) Search Party.
(c) Reserve Party.
(d) Interrogation/Identification Team.
(e) Civic Action Team.
(f) Guard for Prisoners.
As our aim in counter insurgency operations is to win over the hearts and minds of the people, we should take all measures to mitigate the hardships caused to the villagers. How can this be done?
(a) Carrying out cordon and search operation based on definite information. In the absence of definite information, the whole exercises will result in causing unnecessary hardship to the people. The civilians do support the actions of SF if some hostile is apprehended and incriminating evidence found in the village.
(b) Women and children should be screened first so that they can continue with household work. When people are detained, provision of water and food should be made.
(c) Troops should conduct themselves in a businesslike manner.
(d) Village elders and women should be respected.
(e) Religious institutions should never be desecrated.
(f) Appropriate civic action should be carried out.
How CASO is conducted? What measures must be adopted to achieve surprise?
- Approaching the Village. All measures to achieve surprise must be adopted. This can be done by:
(a) Move cross-country and moving at night.
(b) Detaining any civilians encountered en-route and
(c) Adopting correct drills during move. - Cordoning the Village.
Once the cordon has been established, a thorough search of the village should be carried out. Suspected houses should be searched first followed by remaining houses. What do the search ensure?
(a) Confirm readiness of cordon.
(b) Divide area of search, boundaries between search team and indicate important search targets to team leaders a first sight.
(c) Select and indicate location of command team and reserve.
(d) Ensure there is no cross firing.
(e) Collect village persons and segregate them.
(f) Location of OPs with binoculars at key locations to watch movements and other activities while search is in progress.
Res party is reqd to cater for any unforeseen eventualities; what are the tasks that may be given to the res party in IA drill?
(i) To enforce curfew.
(ii) To establish an observation posts to oversee the village during the operation.
(iii) To note changes in facial expressions of the peoples and suspicious movements.
(iv) To pursue escaping hostile.
