Primed for Agniveer, 16 from eastern Assam got police job

The Army’s pre-recruitment training helped 19 out of 36 youths get into the security forces from an area that used to supply fighters for the ULFA

Mihir Changmai, Monalisa Boro and 14 others couldn’t crack the Agniveer test. But their Army-aided preparation for the four-year stint as a soldier helped them get into the Assam police instead.

These new police recruits and three others who made it as Agniveers are from a part of eastern Assam that once supplied extremist groups, such as the United Liberation Front of Asom, an assembly line of guerrilla fighters.  

An Army unit in the once-notorious ‘ANA Triangle’ had organised a pre-recruitment training for 35 days in July and August, after the stage was set to induct the first set of Agniveers who would form a distinct rank in the armed forces.

In military jargon, ANA expands to Assam-Nagaland-Arunachal Pradesh. The ANA Triangle largely covers a part of Assam straddling the Charaideo and Dibrugarh districts, close to where the boundaries of the three northeastern States meet.

“When it comes to getting recruited in the armed forces, the difference between success and failure is less than 10 seconds. There was an overwhelming response from the local youths, boys and girls, when we decided to prepare them for the final hurdles,” Colonel Vivek Anand told The Hindu.

The Army’s scouts selected 36 athletic youths who “had it in them” to become soldiers. They were chosen from Joypur, Sapekhaiti, Bangnabari and other areas of Charaideo and Dibrugarh districts.

“In Assam and elsewhere in the northeast, the youths generally do not flunk the physical tests. But many cannot get past the written test, and the tips we provided on how to brush up on maths, science, reasoning and general knowledge set the successful trainees apart,” Col. Anand said.