59 CoBRA Commandos Go AWOL, Take Weekend Off Before Duty

New Delhi: Fifty-nine trainee commandos of the elite CoBRA - an anti-Naxal and jungle warfare unit - went missing from a train as they were going for their first assignment in Bihar. After an inquiry, the shocked Central Reserved Police Force, or CRPF, to which these men belonged, said they had gone home without permission for the weekend and departmental action will be taken against them.

The men, all of constable rank, had been recruited in 2011. They were coming from Jammu and Kashmir's Srinagar, where they had undergone a six-month training course.

The unarmed commandos had walked off as their train stopped at night in Mughalsarai. Officials said they had not even informed their contingent commander, who was on the train.  

In a statement, the CRPF said the men had been sent to Jammu earlier than schedule "due to inclement weather and road blockade" and decided to take an early train on February 2. "Since they were early... they decided on their own to avail Saturday and Sunday to visit their homes without permission," the statement read.  

"These personnel have committed a misconduct for which they will be dealt departmentally," the country's largest paramilitary force said.

The men - most of whom were from Bihar and Uttar Pradesh -- were expected to report at the headquarters of the 205th CoBRA unit in Gaya in Bihar today. They were being deployed for special anti-Maoist operations in Bihar.

The CoBRA was raised in 2009 by the Central government under CRPF to act as a special guerrilla combat wing for tackling Maoist violence and insurgency in the northeast with the aid of specific intelligence inputs.