Sanjukta Parashar first woman to head CRPF’s CoBRA commando unit
IPS officer Sanjukta Parashar has been appointed as the first woman to lead the CoBRA jungle warfare unit of the CRPF. This move is part of a broader initiative to place women in high-stakes operational and combat-heavy leadership roles within the Indian security forces.
Why it matters
The appointment marks a significant shift in gender representation within elite counter-insurgency and paramilitary operations in India.
NEW DELHI: IPS officer Sanjukta Parashar, called the ‘Iron Lady of Assam’, has become the first woman officer to lead CRPF’s jungle warfare commando unit, CoBRA.Parashar, a 2006-batch officer of the Assam-Meghalaya cadre, earned the moniker of Iron Lady after leading the crackdown against militant outfit National Democratic Front of Bodoland in 2013-14 as the then Sonitpur SP.Parashar, who is from Assam, has served both in her cadre as well as in NIA, specialising in key counter-terror investigations. She was heading the CID wing of Assam Police before being appointed IG, CoBRA.She will head CoBRA at a time when the force is engaged in holding and securing large forest areas, mostly in Chhattisgarh and Jharkhand, reclaimed from Naxals.
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