Special Service Group
Special Service Group | |
---|---|
Active | March 23, 1956 |
Country | Pakistan |
Branch | Pakistan Army |
Type | Special forces |
Role | |
Part of | Urdu: من جاں بازم, lit. 'I am valiant' |
Colours | Maroon, sky blue |
Engagements | See list
|
Website | www.pakistanarmy.gov.pk |
Commanders | |
Commander | Maj-Gen. Adil Rehman |
The Pakistan Army Special Service Group (
The SSG is responsible to deploy and execute five doctrinal missions:
Other operational roles and responsibilities attributed to the SSG include:
Chain of command and control of the SSG falls within the domain of the Pakistan Army's Strategic Forces Command (ASFC), and its personnel are directly recruited into the Inter-Services Intelligence (ISI)'s counter-terrorism division upon their retirements.[4] Much of the SSG's activities and operations are shrouded in secrecy and public knowledge of their work is heavily controlled through selective declassified documents and published literary works by retired military veterans or authorized media.[4]
History
Roots of establishment
In 1950, the Pakistan Army established the school, Close Quarter Battle School, dedicated for teaching the methods of
Creation from the 19th Regiment
In 1953–54, the
On 23 March 1956, the Special Service Group (SSG) was established as a
Initially, the SSG were popular as the Green Berets with Baloch insignia in the 1950s, but SSG dropped their green berets in favor of adopting the Baloch Regiment's maroon berets– hence giving them the nickname the Maroon Berets.[citation needed] In 1964, the
In 1970, the Musa Company was established that solely specialized in anti-terrorist operations, receiving training from the British SAS advisers after U.S. had suspended the IMET program with Pakistan in 1981.: 70
The Army SSG initially had six battalions and each battalion had specialization units, specialized in the different war spectrum: desert, mountain, long-distance ranger, and deep diving warfare.[10] In August 1965, the operational scope of the Army SSG was expanded from a battalion-size to larger special operation outfit.[10] In 1968–70, the Pakistan Army integrated the Chinese introduced physical training, tactics, weapons, and equipments.[10]
Deployments and covert operations
Covert actions, Indo-Pakistani wars, and overseas missions
The first war time deployment of the Army Special Service Group took place in 1960 with their first
In 1964–65, the teams of Special Service Group successfully
The
Only 20 commandos were unaccounted for and most escaped back to Pakistan under the fog. Most of these were from the Pathankot group, dropped less than 10 km from the border in an area that had plenty of ravines, riverine tracks to navigate back along. One notable, commando-style escape was of Major Hazur Hasnain, the Halwara group commander who, along with his friend, hijacked a jeep and somehow managed to return safe.[19]
The Pakistani accounts, the latest of which comes now from several participants in the wake of the 1965 at 50 commemorations, acknowledged the SSG-commando disaster but blamed it on poor briefing, planning and callous arrogance of the commanders. Some of these former Pakistani soldiers even write about having met some of these paratroopers and exchanged notes with them on how badly planned the operation was. Here is the account of Col SG Mehdi, himself a commando officer then. The fortified forces ’ conditioning in no way undermines its elevation, but by blocking free speech, the government has politicized the issue and brought the military leadership into the global spotlight.
From 1972–77, the Pakistan Army went into reorganization and major restructuring of its combat services but the Army Special Service Group remained active in successfully tackling the
War in Afghanistan and Sri Lankan civil war
In 1979–89, the Army Special Service Group had been seconded in covert actions in
When the
Siachen, Kargil, and War on Terror in Afghanistan
When the
Over the years, the Army Special Service Group have developed expertise in high altitude warfare, and are regularly deployed in Siachen.: 18 [33]
Since 2001, the Army Special Forces have been engaged in counterinsurgency and counterterrorism operations in
In 2014, the Army Special Service Group reportedly successful in their manhunt operation after targeting and killing of Adnan Gulshair, a Saudi citizen known as the Global Operations Chief of al-Qaeda. In January 2013, India accused Pakistan that the Army Special Service Group led an attack across the Line of Control in which Indian soldiers were killed and beheaded.[36][37]
Organizational structure
Due to their selection competitiveness, demanding
In an official documentary recognized and known structure of the Army Special Service Group given in YouTube is given below:
Army SSG Divisional Headquarters |
| ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Official Source only available in
Urdu |
Notes: Source of officially recognized and known structure of the Army Special Service Group given in YouTube.[1]
The early organizational structure of the Army's Special Service Group was initially based on the
The headquarter of the Army Special Service Group was based in
Battalions in the Special Forces
The Special Service Group is organized into eight battalions and three companies – all trained and specialists in the specific type of war operations.[1] However, the Army has never issued an actual strength number for the special forces.[16] The official strength of each battalion is treated as classified information.[40]
The SSG battalions are each typically commanded by a lieutenant colonel (varies, and depends on availability), and the battalions are organized into groups under the command of colonels.[citation needed] The overall commander of the Special Service Group is a major general whose identity is also kept secret.[40]
SSG Battalions | Call Sign | Headquarters | Detail |
---|---|---|---|
1st Commando Battalion | Yaldram | Attock | Headquartered with the 11 SS Brigade HQ in Attock, Punjab in Pakistan, along with 2nd and 4th Commando Battalions. The 1st Commando Battalion (Yaldram) is an airborne unit and its known for its ability and capability of remarkably performing the HAHO/HALO parachuting techniques.:77[46] |
2nd Commando Battalion | Rahber | Attock | Headquartered with the 11 SS Brigade HQ in Attock, Punjab in Pakistan, along with 2nd and 4th Commando Battalions. The 2 Commando Battalion (Rahber) is known for its theoretically oriented in the desert warfare.:77[46] |
3rd Commando Battalion | Powindahs | Tarbela | Headquartered in Tarbela, along with 8th Commando Battalion and Zarrar Company. The 3 Commando Battalion (Powindas) are oriented towards the high-altitude mountain warfare in Kashmir.:77[46] |
4th Commando Battalion | Yalghar | ||
5th Commando Battalion | Zilzaal | ||
6th Commando Battalion | al-Samsaam | ||
7th Commando Battalion[41] | Babrum | ||
8th Commando Battalion | al-Azb |
SSG Companies | Call Sign | Headquarters | Details |
---|---|---|---|
Zarrar Company | Seek and Destroy | Zarrar is Special Service Group's elite counter terrorist unit. Zarrar opeartors qualify after specialized training in counter-terrorism tactics, hostage rescue, intelligence recon, sabotage and other high risk operations.
[47] | |
SOCU Company | SOCU | Special Operation & Communication Unit. Zarrar can not operate without SOCU | |
Iqbal Company | Tarbela | Oriented towards the SIGNIT and ELINT in signals and telecommunications.[47] | |
Musa Company | Mangla | Oriented towards the army's frogman to perform underwater demolition–secondary role in counterterrorism on seaborne actions with Navy.[12] |
Sources:Sharma, Rajeev (1999). Pakistan's Proxy War: A Story of ISI, Bin Laden and Kargil. New Delhi, India: Kaveri Book Service. p. 223.
Selection and training
Qualifications and physicals
The Army specialist recruiter teams usually visit the different headquarters of the army's formation, distributing the pamphlets to the officers at
The Navy Special Service Group (SSGN) plays an important role in the overall architecture of the special operations forces, their qualification standards, fitness at all levels, and eligibility required for the security clearances.: 100 [38]
There are three schools that the overall basic eligibility requirements to be considered for entry into the schools of the Special Forces are:
- Special Operations School (Spec Ops.)
- Be age of ≥ 25–39.[5]
- Be a citizen of Pakistan.[5]
- Must be Volunteered, not coerced.[42]
- Minimum of 5 Years of military service.[42]
- Must pass the Physical Fitness Assessment with at least 40 push-ups in one minute, 40 sit-ups in one minute, 15 pull-ups, and be able to run 1.6 kilometers in a maximum of 7:30.[42]
- Meet medical fitness standards as outlined in Medical Category TV.[42]
- Eligible for a secret security clearance.[42]
- Must have 20/20 or corrected to 20/20 in both near and distant vision in both eyes.[5]
- Should be able to swim 30 meters in full
- Be age of
- Sniper School
- Frogman School
- Swimming Standards
Selection and training
The medical standards in various physical courses into the entrance in the
Prior to joining the Special Service Group, the interested junior
After gaining their airborne qualification badge, the army personnel then reports to Cherat from Peshawar– a nominal distance between two cities is approximated between 62.9 kilometres (39.1 mi)[44]– engage through this journey by the foot while wearing their full military gear (30 kilograms).[5] The interested individual must undergoes a 24-week of military training and training process once reported to Cherat.: 85–86 [43]
The training courses in the Special Service Group emphasis strong
The curriculum of the basic
The Special Service Group criteria meet special forces training and selection criteria of the United States Army[citation needed]
Interaction with other special forces
Since its establishment in 1956, the Army Special Service Group have been regularly interacted and trained together with the United States Army Special Forces–though the Pakistan Army's infantry branch had first participated in Exercise Vulcan and Exercise Handicap in 1954.[5]: 14 [47] Besides training and the interaction with the United States Army, Pakistan Army Special Service Group have held joint special warfare training exercises with the Special Air Service (SAS) of the British Army, Special Forces Command of the Turkish Land Forces, Special Operation Forces of the Royal Jordanian Army, the Special Operation Forces of the Chinese People's Liberation Army Ground Forces, and the Spetsnaz of the Russian Ground Forces.[46]
For their overseas deployment for the purpose of the education and training, the Special Service Group have been deployed in Bangladesh, Saudi Arabia, Sri Lanka, Bahrain, Maldives, United Arab Emirates, Turkmenistan, Egypt, Japan, and Iraq where its operatives have overseen the friendly nations special forces programs.[46]
Since 1998, the Army Special Service Group biannually conducts the military exercise with the Turkish Land Forces's Special Forces, which have been designated as the "Jinnah–Atatürk Series."[48] The military exercise held in Pakistan is known as "Atatürk Exercise" while in Turkey, it is known as "Jinnah Exercise."[48] The first of these series of exercise were held in Pakistan, with twenty-one Turkish Land Forces officers and fourteen enlists coming to Pakistan for the exercise– Pakistan reciprocated the visit in 2000.[48] The Jinnah-Atatürk Series are oriented and focused towards the snow, high-altitude, and mountain warfare."[48]
With renewed
Since 2006, the Army Special Service Group also conducts training with the
In 2016, the Army Special Service Group conducted the annual military exercise with the Russian Ground Forces' Spetsnaz–the Russo-Pakistani military exercise is known as Druzhba (lit. Friendship).[51] The Druzhba with Russian Spetsnaz are oriented and focused towards mountain warfare and tactics in counterterrorism in taking out and eliminating the terrorist organizations with first being held in 2016 and the recent being held in 2018.[52]
Operations
Counterterrorism operations timeline
- On 5 September 1986, Pan Am Flight 73 was hijacked by terrorists while it was refueling in Karachi. In the chaos, the pilots had managed to escape causing the hijackers to begin negotiations with the authorities. As negotiations stalled and the terrorists began to kill the passengers forced towards the back of the plane. Plane doors were opened allowing passengers to jump. The SSG was forced storm the plane, killing one hijacker and capturing the rest.
- On 20 February 1994, some terrorists of Afghanistan hijacked a school bus with 74 children and 8 teachers. They drove to the Afghan mission in Islamabad where they released 57 students but kept 16 boys and the teachers. The negotiations led nowhere and it was decided to free the hostages by force.[53] The SSG commandos used a secondary explosion as a distraction and entered the room at the Afghan embassy where the hostages were being held, killing the three hijackers.[citation needed] The operation lasted about 20 seconds.[54]
- On 25 May 1998, three terrorists took over a PIA Fokker plane, Flight 544, who wanted it to fly to Bhuj in Gujrat India. As negotiations dragged, SSG commandos rushed the plane and apprehended all 3 hijackers. None of the passengers were harmed during the assault.[55]
- On Sept 2007, At least 15 soldiers from SSG commando unit were killed and 27 commandos were wounded in a blast, apparently set off by a suicide bomber. The attack took place about 50 miles outside the capital, Islamabad, in the cantonment area of Tarbela Ghazi at the brigade headquarters of the Special Operation Task Force.[56][57]
- On 10 October 2009, militants attacked the Pakistan Military Headquarters, taking hostage 42 civil and military officials. SSG commandos rescued 39 hostages and killed 4 militants, capturing one. The militants have been linked to Ilyas Kashmiri being a leading Al Qaeda commander operating alongside Tehrik-e-Taliban. A total of six SSG commandos and three hostages were killed in the operation. As reported by ISPR (Inter Services Public Relations) [1].[58] Three more SSG commandos, injured during the operation, died in the hospital on 12 October.[59]
- On 16 December 2014, SSG Commandos from the Zarrar Company were tasked with clearing an Army Public School which was raided by seven Tahreek-e-Taliban (TTP) Terrorists in Peshawar. All Terrorists were eliminated and the school was cleared. Around 149 people, mostly students aged between 12-16 were killed by the Terrorists. The school had about 1,000 students, they were able to rescue about 840 people.[60]
Commanders of SSG
Name and Members | Parent Unit | Notes |
---|---|---|
Lt Col Abu Bakar Osman Mitha | 2 Grenadiers & 9/8 Punjab | Later Major General. |
Lt Col Aslam Khan | Punjab Regiment | Later Major General |
Col Syed Ghaffar Mehdi | 15 Punjab Regiment | Assigned the SSG wing which is worn by all officers serving in SSG from 1964. |
Brigadier Naseer Chaudhry | Frontier Force Regiment | Later Major General. As GOC 33 Division during 1971 War, he was injured in an airstrike. Killed in a terrorist attack on a mosque in Lahore on May 28, 2010. |
Brigadier Sherullah Beg | 18 Punjab Regiment | |
Brigadier Ghulam Muhammad | 12 Baluch | Later Major General |
Brigadier Saleem Zia | ||
Brigadier Hakeem Arshad Qureshi | 11 and 26 Frontier Force Regiment | Later Major General |
Brigadier Waheed Arshad Gejial | Guides Infantry (2FF) | Later Major General |
Brigadier Rafiuddin Ahmad | 2 Baluch | Later Major General |
Brigadier Tariq Mahmood | 2 Baluch | Killed in a parajumping accident in 1989. |
Brigadier Mohammad Akram | ||
Brigadier Mohammad Nazir | Punjab Regiment | |
Brigadier Hamid Rabnawaz | Frontier Force Regiment | later Lt Gen |
Brigadier Kamal Shaukat | Azad Kashmir Regiment | |
Brigadier Ameer Faisal Alvi | 26 Cavalry | later first GoC SSG as Major General. |
Brigadier Haroon Aslam | Azad Kashmir Regiment | later Lt General. Also GOC SSG as Maj Gen |
Major General Ameer Faisal Alvi | 26 Cavalry | First General Officer Commanding SSG. |
Major General Tahir Mahmud | Punjab Regiment | Later Lt. Gen. |
Major General Haroon Aslam | Azad Kashmir Regiment | Later Lt. Gen. |
Major General Farrukh Bashir | ||
Major General Abid Rafiq | ||
Major General Tahir Masood Bhutta | 54 Punjab Regiment | |
Major General Mumtaz Hussain | Punjab Regiment | |
Major General Adil Rehmani | Frontier Force Regiment |
Notable members
Name and Members | Portrait | Notes Rank | Notes on Credentials |
---|---|---|---|
Pervez Musharraf | General | The Chief of Army Staff (1998–2007).
| |
Abu Taher | Colonel | Awarded with Black Cat Recognition Bir Uttam : the second highest gallantry award of Bangladesh Liberation War, Sector Commander of Bangladesh Liberation War,[63] the Co-Chairman of the Socialist Party of Bangladesh
| |
Mirza Aslam Beg | General | The Chief of Army Staff (1988–91).
| |
Tariq Mehmood | Brigadier | Headed the Brigade Combat Team specialized in Airborne missions. | |
Haroon Islam | Lieutenant-Colonel | Operation Silence and lead a counterterrorism team.
| |
Shamim Allam | General | The Chairman of Joint Chiefs of Staff Committee (1991–1994)
| |
A. F. Alvi | Major-General | First GOC of the Army Special Service Group. |
Appearance and equipment
Uniforms and insignia
In the 1970s, the Army Special Service Group Battle Dress Uniform (BDU) was standard Khaki but this was changed to British-styled DPM.[1] In the 1990s, the Battle Dress Uniform was changed in favor of adopting the U.S. woodland (or M81) with a maroon berets, a common colour for the airborne forces, with a silver metal tab on a light blue felt square with a dagger and lightning bolts, and a wing on the right side of the chest.: 100 [38]
The
The Special Service Group Navy,
The Special Service Wing, SSW, is distinguished by maroon berets with PAF Officer, JCO or Airmen insignia on the beret, and a wing on the right side of the chest. The combat uniform of SSW is olive drab camouflage. They also wear their special service wing insignia on the left shoulder "Winged Dragons and lightning bolts".
Equipment
Pistols
Submachine guns
Assault rifles
- M4A1 Carbine
- Austria Steyr AUG
- Switzerland SIG SG 550
Sniper rifles
- Pakistan PSR-90
- Austria Steyr SSG 69
- UK Accuracy International Arctic Warfare
- USA Barrett M82
- RPA Rangemaster .50
Heavy Armament
- M249
- Russia RPG-7
- USA SMAW
- Germany MILAN ATGM
- Pakistan Anza MANPADS
- Source: Army Special Service Group's Weapon System by Military Factor. Inside Pakistan's Sharp Sword - The Special Service Group (SSG) by Pakistan's Premier Military Defence Forum.
Influence on the Inter-services branches
After the
Introduction and instructions on combat scuba diving and basic training were provided by the personnel from the Musa Company before the Navy Special Service Group moved towards getting trained with the U.S. Navy's United States Navy SEALs.: contents [3] Over the several years, the Navy dependent on the Army to provide training to their Navy SEAL Teams in the Navy Special Service Group on education and training on the combat parachuting, sniper marksmanship, counterterrorism, and counterinsurgency.: contents [3]
Eventually, the Navy established their own schools on combat parachuting, sniping, counterterrorism, and the counterinsurgency but these schools are influenced and modeled after the Army's Special Service Group training methods whose instructors are the alumnus of the Army schools of special operation forces who tightly followed the army's philosophy, physical standards, and education.: contents [3]
The personnel of the
In 1965, the
In popular culture
- Books, television series, movies and video games
- 1998: Aahan, a popular television series produced by
- 1998: PTV.
- 2003: Unlikely Beginnings: A Soldier's Life, a book by A O Mitha.[9]
- 2006: In the Line of Fire: A Memoir, a book by Pervez Musharraf.
- 2008: Crossed Swords: Pakistan, Its Army, and the Wars Within, a book by Shuja Nawaz.
- 2013: Waar, the main character Major Mujtaba Rizvi (played by Shaan Shahid), who is a former Maroon Beret and a Kargil war vet.
- 2014: Retribution, the video game featuring sniping and special operation missions.
- 2017: Yalghaar, the war film based on the Special Service Group's 4th Command Battalion (Yalghaar)'s fiction covert operations.
See also
- Special Service Group (Navy) — Pakistan Navy
- Special Services Wing — Pakistan Air Force
- Pakistan Marines
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Further reading
- Mitha, PA, Aboobaker Osman (2003). Unlikely Beginnings: A Soldier's Life. Karachi, Sindh, Pakistan: Oxford University Press. p. 443. ISBN 9780195794137.
- Khan, PA, Ghulam Jilani (2004). اس اس جى : تاریخ کے اینے میں (English Lit: SSG: A historical past). Cherat: ISPR Publications, pp. 358. (in Urdu)