• Sanjeev Raina, a 1987-batch ITBP officer, has been appointed Additional Director General (ADG) in the India-China LAC guarding force.

• It is only the second time in the ITBP when a cadre officer has been elevated to the ADG post, the second highest rank in the force after the Director General. 

• The ADG post in the ITBP and other central armed police forces (CAPFs) is essentially occupied by officers who come on deputation to these organisations from the Indian Police Service (IPS).

• Raina, serving as an Inspector General (IG) at the force’s central sector headquartered in Bhopal, is being elevated to the ADG rank apart from another officer, IG Jaspal Singh, for the panel year 2024.

• However, Raina, 59, will serve in the new post for just over a month as he is scheduled to retire next month.

• Raina, who hails from Kashmir, joined the ITBP in November, 1987 and has served tenures in Ladakh, Jammu & Kashmir, and northeast, and is credited with setting up the famed counter insurgency and jungle warfare (CIJW) school of the mountain-warfare trained force in Mahidanda, Uttarakhand.

Indo-Tibetan Border Police

• Indo-Tibetan Border Police (ITBP) was raised in the wake of Chinese aggression in 1962 with a modest strength of four battalions. It was originally conceptualised as an integrated  “guerrilla-cum-intelligence-cum-fighting force”. It evolved with passage of time into a border guarding force.

• ITBP was initially raised under the CRPF Act. In 1992, the Parliament enacted the ITBP Act and the rules there under were framed in 1994.

• ITBP is guarding 3,488 km of India-China border and is manning Border Out Posts (BOPs) on altitudes ranging from 9,000 to 18,750 ft in the western, middle and eastern sector of the India-China border along with Himalayas from Karakoram Pass in Ladakh to Jachep La in Arunachal Pradesh. 

• Apart from the LAC, the ITBP having strength of about 98,000 personnel is deployed for rendering a number of internal security duties in the country including conduct of anti-Naxal operations. 

• The motto of the Force is “Shaurya-Dridhata-Karma Nishtha” (Valour – Determination – Devotion to Duty). 

Tasks of ITBP:

i) Vigil on the northern borders, detection and prevention of border violations, and promotion of the sense of security among the local populace.

ii) Check illegal immigration, trans-border smuggling and crimes.

iii) Security to sensitive installations, banks and protected persons.

iv) Restore and preserve order in any area in the event of disturbance.

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