- One Muslim among 37 DGs of the CRPF
- No Muslim has been Assam Rifles (AR) chief since 1947
- CISF has two Muslims among 65 senior commandants
- ITBP has two Muslims among its 23 top officials
Team Clarion
NEW DELHI – The seven Central Armed Police Forces (CAPF) – Border Security Force (BSF), Central Industrial Security Force (CISF), Central Reserve Police Force (CRPF), Indo-Tibetan Border Police (ITBP), Sashastra Seema Bal (SSB), National Security Guard (NSG) and Assam Rifles (AR) – which together has over 10 lakh personnel, have Muslims in ‘symbolic’ numbers at key management levels.
The CAPF and the National Disaster Response Force (NDRF), all under the authority of the Union Ministry of Home Affairs, are deployed for a variety of internal security duties in the hinterland and at the borders which include 41,606 women among their ranks and file, according to data in a new book, Muslims in India 1947-2024 – Fake Narratives versus Ground Realities.
In December 2024, the Union government informed the Rajya Sabha that 71,231 new posts had been created in the Central Armed Police Forces (CAPF) and Assam Rifles (AR) in the previous five years, from 2020 to 2024. There are 1,00,204 vacancies in CAPF and Assam Rifles (AR) as of October 2024, including 3,377 in Assam Rifles, 12,808 in BSF, 31,782 in CISF, 33,730 in CRPF, 9,861 in ITBP, and 8,646 in SSB. As per the government claim, vacancies have arisen due to retirements, resignations, promotions, deaths, a new battalion, and the creation of new posts.
Founded in December 1965, the Border Security Force, the world’s largest border guarding force with about three lakh personnel, guards the country’s 3,323 km-long border with Pakistan, except the 740 km-long Line of Control (LoC) and the 4,096 km-long border with Bangladesh. None of the 30 BSF’s Director-Generals had been a Muslim. Only one is a Muslim among 20 top management – Asif Jalal, IGP (Provisions). No Muslims were included in 13 officials at Frontiers, 44 in Sectors officials, and 14 in Training. In the Western Command, BSF had 42 Inspectors-General at the Kashmir Front since 1966 – No Muslim included.
There had been no Muslim in the Jammu Front which had 35 IGs since 1966. Punjab Front had 31 IGs since 1971 including one Muslim – Asif Jalal, from February 2022 to March 2023. The Rajasthan Front has had 31 IGs since 1974 without a Muslim on the list. Gujarat Front, since 2004, had seen 10 IGs of whom none was a Muslim. South Bengal Frontier in the Eastern Command had seen 28 IGs since 1965, with no Muslim on board. The North Bengal Frontier has seen 36 IGs since 1988 without a Muslim figure on the list. The Guwahati Frontier, since 2011, has seen eight IGs, again without a Muslim official on the list. The Frontier Meghalaya, since 1977, has seen 40 IGs including a Muslim – CZ Ghafoor who served twice between 1985 and 1988.
Tripura Frontier had 37 IGs since 1983 including two Muslims – MF Farooqui from 2015 to 2016, and JA Khan from 2007 to 2008. The Mizoram and Cachar Front had seen 41 IGs since 1993 – no Muslim included. The HQ Command (Special Operations) in Odisha had 11 IGs since 2009 which included a Muslim – Syed Abdul Khader, from 2011 to 2013. The second Special Operations for Chhattisgarh has seen 14 IGs since 2010 without a Muslim figure on the list. The BSF Academy in Tekanpur (Gwalior) has seen 41 directors since 1966 including one Muslim – MI Khan, an IG-rank officer from 2009 to 2010.
The Central School of Weapons and Tactics has seen 13 IG-ranked chiefs since 2013, of whom none had been a Muslim. No Muslim had headed the Training School and Centre (TS&C) out of seven IG-ranked chiefs since 2013. The BSF Institute of Communication and IT, in New Delhi, has seen 12 IG-ranked chiefs since 2016, again no Muslim on board. The Centre of Electronics and Digital Communications has seen six chiefs since 2017 with no Muslim on board. In 11 Subsidiary Training Centres (STCs), the BSF had seen a total of 122 chiefs of whom three were Muslims – MI Khan (2002); SA Khadar (2010); and Asif Jalal (2022).
The Central Industrial Security Force (CISF), a specialised force providing security to strategic establishments like the Parliament, Departments of Space and Atomic Energy, all ports and airports, Delhi Metro, historical monuments like the Taj Mahal and Red Fort, and sensitive government buildings, had only three battalions and 2,800 personnel when it started in March 1969. It has now grown to 188,000 personnel, making it one of the largest and strongest security forces in the country. In April 2017, the government raised the sanctioned strength from 1,45,000 to 1,80,000 personnel, and now its strength has gone up to 2,00,000.
At present CISF undertakes duties concerning internal security, elections, and anti-Naxal operations. The force is divided into Nine Sectors (Airport, North, North-East, East, West, South, Training, South-East, and Central) and also has a Fire Service Wing. Following the hijacking of an Indian Airlines flight in 1999, the Union government brought airports under its purview and Jaipur Airport became the first one to come under its control in February 2000. By February 2023, the CISF was protecting a total of 66 international and domestic airports in the country. Delhi Metro Rail has been guarded by it since taking it over from the Delhi Police in 2007. Now, over 3,500 CISF personnel deal with the law and order issues in the system, in addition to metal detectors, x-ray baggage inspection systems, and dog squads which are used to secure the system.
From May 2024, CISF has been given the responsibility of securing the parliamentary complex after a security breach. The CISF also deploys commandos of its counter-terrorism and VIP protection unit (SSG) in the parliament security. In July 2024, the CISF deployed officers alongside the CRPF, SSB, ITBP, NSG, and the Assam Rifles to provide security assistance to the Police Nationale and Gendarmerie for the 2024 Olympics in Paris. As of January 2020, the CISF officers included five IGPs and 52 DIGs, both having no Muslims. There are only two Muslims among 65 Senior Commandants – Mamun Ur Rashid employed in Odisha, and M Shaik Abdulla in Tamil Nadu.
Among the 59 Commandants is one Muslim, Irfan Ahmad, posted in Uttar Pradesh. The 366 Deputy Commandants have 10 Muslims – Attar Mohammed Haneef (Karnataka); Mohammed Azam Khan (Bihar); MG Ansari (Gujarat) Ishtiyaq Alam (Bihar); MN Khan (Rajasthan); Nafees Ahmad (Uttar Pradesh); Sohail Rafat (Uttar Pradesh); Sadiq Masih (Punjab); Rafaqat Khan (Uttar Pradesh) and Zahid Ali (Bihar). Among the 116 Assistant Commandants are three Muslims – M Ehtisham Uddin (Bihar); P Ayub Khan (Telangana), and Iftekhar Mohammed Khan (Madhya Pradesh).
In the Fire department which employs 80 officials headed by an IGP, none is a Muslim. Among the 264 CISF officers and personnel felicitated on the CISF Day-2023 five were Muslims of various ranks. The Central Reserve Police Force (CRPF), the largest of the CAPF, has 3,13,678 personnel in 247 battalions. The CRPF is deployed for internal security duties, maintenance of law and order, and anti-militant operations in Jammu and Kashmir and the North East.
The Force has 2,92,000 personnel in 192 battalions. The BSF has an air wing, a marine wing, an artillery regiment, and commando units. It includes the Rapid Action Force (RAF), a 15-battalion anti-riot force trained to respond to sectarian violence; the Commando Battalion for Resolute Action (CoBRA), a 10-battalion strong anti-Naxalite force. One of its 37 Director-Generals had been a Muslim – Imdad Ali in 1969-1973. Among the 33 officials in its top management team are three Muslims – Zaki Ahmed (IGP Administration); Syed Mohammed Hasnain (IGP Communications and IT) and Shahnawaz Khan (DIG Provisions). The CoBRA units have six senior officials. Its five DIGs have no Muslim on board while the RAF also has no Muslim among its seven officials including an IGP and DIG.
The Combined Medical Officers Cadre has an Additional DG (Medical,) IGP (Medical), and DIG (Medical) and has 490 commandants including 28 Muslims, 84 DIGs including two Muslims while no Muslim among 19 IGPs (medical). The Bihar sector has one ADG, 10 IGPs, and 15 DIGs – also no Muslims here. The Central and Jharkhand sectors have two IGPs and 11 DIGs of whom none is Muslim. In Madhya Pradesh and other sectors, none of the 15 officers include a Muslim. In the North East sector headed by an IGP, the eight DIGs include one Muslim – Mohammed Imran Malik. In the Tripura sector, no Muslims are included in the 15 officials including IGP. In its Internal Security Academy, the Faculty members, of the DIG and Assistant Commandant ranks, have no Muslims. The CRPF had carried out four overseas missions in Sri Lanka, Haiti, Liberia, and Kosovo. Two of the six contingents to Kosovo were headed by Muslims – ZF Khan (2000-2002) and AM Mohammed (2001-2003).
The CRPF Academy had 16 directors since 2005 with no Muslim face, along with 14 Joint Directors with similar situations. Among the 20 Best in Indoor awardees is a Muslim – Gufran Ahmed in 2012-2013. The 49 faculty members in the Central Training Colleges (CTCs) in Neemuch, Coimbatore, Mudkhed, Gwalior, Silchar, and Shivpuri include three Muslims – Shakeel Ahmed Siddiqui (Assistant Commandant), AK Anas (Deputy Commandant) and Mohammed Shahnawaz (Deputy Commandant). The Counter Insurgency and Anti-Terrorist Training (CIAT) School in Silchar has no Muslim among its 18 faculty members while the CIAT Shivpuri has one Muslim among the six faculty members – Mohammed Lateef Khan, Commandant while CIAT Kalikiri’s three members have no Muslim in faculty.
The CoBRA School of Jungle Warfare and Tactics has 11 members in its faculty including the principal but no Muslim. The Recruitment Training Centre in Jodhpur has 11 faculty members including a Muslim – Tahir Hussain, Assistant Commandant. Also, in the Peringome facility in Kerala, one of the 11 faculty members is a Muslim – Dr KPU Mohammed, Assistant Commandant. Avadi and Neemuch facilities had no Muslims among the faculty members while Rajgir hub has one Muslim in a 12-member faculty – Firoz Ali, Deputy Commandant. Amethi and Lalitpura (Srinagar) have zero Muslims in their faculty members while Latur has among its 12 members faculty one Muslim – Amirul Hassan Ansari. The RAF Academy for Public Order’s 10-member faculty has one Muslim – Zia Ul Haq, Deputy Commandant.
The Indo-Tibetan Border Police (ITBP), raised in October 1962, presently guards 3,488 km-long India-China borders ranging from Ladakh to Arunachal Pradesh, and patrols borders with Nepal (1,751 km) and Bhutan (699 km), in addition to internal security duties and operations against the Left Wing Extremism (LWE) in Chhattisgarh. Most ITBP’s Border Out Posts (BOPs) are located at altitudes ranging from 9,000 feet to 18,800 feet where temperatures drop to minus 45 degrees Celsius in extreme winters. It also conducts relief and rescue operations for natural calamities in the Himalayan region. It was set up to reorganise the frontier intelligence and security setup along the Indo-Tibetan border.
Only four battalions were sanctioned to begin with. The number of ITBP battalions presently is 60 service battalions, four specialist battalions, 17 training centers, and seven logistics establishments with a total strength of about 88,432 personnel. In 2004, the entire stretch of the India-China Border comprising 3,488 km was assigned to the ITBP for Border Guarding duty and, accordingly, ITBP replaced Assam Rifles (AR) in 2004 in Sikkim and Arunachal Pradesh. Of the 37 Director-Generals that ITBP has, one had been a Muslim – JM Qureshi, from February 1987 for a year. Only two Muslims, including a woman, are among its 23 top management team – Abdul Ghani Mir, an IPS officer in the Additional Director-General rank, and Ms Anisa Hussain, an IPS, as Inspector-General (Administration).
Sashastra Seema Bal (SSB), a border guarding force of India deployed along its borders with Nepal and Bhutan, was originally set up under the name Special Service Bureau in 1963 in the aftermath of the Indo-China war to strengthen India’s border areas against enemy operations. None of its 46 Director Generals since 1963 had been a Muslim. One of the 26 senior officials at its headquarters is a Muslim – Nayyer Hasnain Khan, an IGP, who was appointed in September 2024 for five years. There is no Muslim official in the six-member team at the Frontier Headquarters or in 15 members at the sector headquarters. The same situation prevails among the 14 officials at the training headquarters. A similar situation prevails among five officials at its hospitals and 71 members in different units.
The National Security Guard (NSG), formed as the federal contingency zero-error force in 1984 following Operation Blue Star in Punjab to deal with anti-terrorist activities in all their manifestations and thwart serious acts of terrorism, has seen 27 Director-Generals of whom none was a Muslim. The same is the situation presently among its IGs and DIGs numbering 12 in the commonly known as Black Cats, a counter-terrorism unit. Came into being in 1835, the Assam Rifles (AR) was formed with approximately 750 men to primarily protect British Tea estates and their settlements against tribal raids. Subsequently, it was reorganised and renamed the ‘Frontier Force’ as its role was increased to conduct punitive expeditions across the borders of Assam. In 1870, it was merged into three Assam Military Police battalions.
In 1917, its name changed to Assam Rifles. It has grown from 17 battalions and is now the highest awarded and decorated paramilitary force of the republic. Its primary role is to guard the Indo-Myanmar border. It is the oldest paramilitary force in India that guards the 1,643-km-long Indo-Myanmar border and conducts anti-militancy operations in the Northeast. There had been no Muslim among its 33 Director-Generals since September 1947 while the present-day senior officials up to brigadier rank numbering 16 too had no Muslims.
Muslims are at a low representation level in other police organisations.
The Bureau of Police Research and Development (BPR&D was set up in August 1970 to give a new orientation to the Police Research and Advisory Council, in operation since 1966, for the primary objective of modernisation of police forces; promote a speedy and systematic study of the police problems; and apply science and technology in the methods and techniques used by police. It was established with two divisions initially with a well-laid-out charter of duties. In 1977, the National Police Commission recommended measures that led to the establishment of a National Crime Records Bureau (NCRB) in 1986 replacing the Research Division. The government accorded an independent status to the Forensic Science Division by creating a Forensic Science Directorate having an autonomous status under the direct control of the Ministry of Home Affairs. Among the 115 BPR&D officials, only one is a Muslim as of June 2024 – Shareeq Wali Khan, in the Research and Correctional Administration R&CA) division.
The National Crime Records Bureau (NCRB) was established in 1986 replacing the BPR&D’s Research Division on the recommendations of the National Police Commission (1977-1981) as a repository of information on crimes and criminals. In 2009, the NCRB was entrusted with the responsibility of monitoring, coordinating, and implementing the Crime and Criminal Tracking Network and System (CCTNS) project which connects about 15,000 police stations and 6,000 higher offices in the country. Among its 18-member management team are no Muslim officials.
The National Investigation Agency came up following the enactment of the NIA Act in December 2008, and presently functions as the Central Counter Terrorism Law Enforcement Agency. It has registered and investigated 315 cases as of February 2020. After the submission of charge sheets, 60 cases have been finally or partially decided in trial. Of these, 54 cases have ended in conviction giving NIA a conviction percentage of 90 percent. Among its 40 senior officials, there are no Muslims.
Sardar Vallabhbhai Patel National Police Academy (SVPNPA), formed a year after Independence in Hyderabad to train officers of the Indian Police Service (IPS), has seen 31 chiefs of whom one had been a Muslim – AA Ali, a Madhya Pradesh cadre IPS officer who served from December 1985 for five years. He was the 14th chief of the SVPNPA whose present-day senior faculty has 24 members with no Muslims on board. The North Eastern Police Academy (NEPA), working under the Ministry of Home Affairs since 1984, has been headed by 13 commandants, of whom one had been a Muslim – its founder-chief AA Ali who headed it from July 1978 to November 1984. The Meghalaya-based body imparts one-year basic training to the directly recruited police officers of the rank of SIs and DSPs, in addition to designing and offering different types of in-service training programs for police personnel of all states.
The National Disaster Response Force (NDRF), also under the Ministry of Home Affairs, has seen 12 officials heading it including its seventh chief, Mahboob Alam, an IPS officer, from February to August 2014. Among its 18 officials at Force Headquarters is a Muslim – Mohsen Shahidi, Deputy Inspector General for Ops/IT/Communication/PRO) for the West Central Zone in Delhi. No Muslim has headed as the commandant of its 16 units/battalions. Three battalions of NDRF are requisitioned from BSF, the world’s largest dedicated border guarding force.
To read and obtain more data, Please visit: