New Delhi: A squad of 125 Indian women police
personnel far away in Liberia is elated as it finds itself
sharing some bright moments after the announcement of Nobel
Peace Prize last week.
The women, drawn from paramilitary CRPF, are deployed as
special police officers under the UN to guard Liberian
President Ellen Johnson Sirleaf who has won the coveted prize
along with two other women.
An elite squad of these AK-47 totting women personnel
keep a round-the-clock vigil on the office of the President
which also houses the West African nation's foreign affairs
department in capital Monrovia.
"It is a proud and a very happy moment for us that the
Nobel Peace Prize has been won by the Liberian President. The
Indian women contingent was chosen to guard her and our camp
and the women are ecstatic," Commander of the Indian Female
Formed Police Unit (FFPU) Poonam Gupta told PTI over phone
from her camp office in Monrovia.
"The girls are extremely elated by this announcement and
they have requested us to make arrangements to call on the
President and greet her," Gupta, who took over from a previous
CRPF contingent in February this year, said.
"The President has visited us a few times and had also
come to our camp early this year. The girls see her regularly
going in and out for work but surely the Nobel Peace Prize has
made them see her in a new light of respect and admiration,"
Gupta said.
Recounting their daily drill, Gupta said a small platoon
of about 8-10 armed women personnel from the contingent keep a
constant vigil of Sirleaf's office, where she spends her
maximum time.
The personnel are armed with weapons like AK-47, INSAS
rifles and Light Machine Guns (LMGs) to thwart any attempt of
sabotage the vital infrastructure and its occupants.
PTI
First Published: Sunday, October 09, 2011, 13:08