'Kashmir In Karnataka' - Surankot, A Perfect Village!

Welcome to Surankot, the perfect Kashmiri village in the heart of Karnataka.

Located within the Maratha Light Infantry and Regimental Centre (MLIRC) premises in Belgaum, the mock village serves as the perfect training ground where soldiers sharpen their skills in counter-insurgency operations.

Called a low intensity conflict operation (LICO) village, Surankot has everything that provides a Kashmiri ambience, sans snow. It has a sarpanch house, a LICO hut, a clinic, a primary school, a place of worship and typical dhoks (traditional Kashmiri huts)—in a dense jungle setting. The houses are furnished with essential commodities one may find in a typical Kashmiri home.

“The LICO village is one of its kind and we teach recruits every minute detail that is critical while undertaking search operations. We incorporate additions from time to time to these installations based on the experiences of instructors, who had been in forward areas,” said Col K M Bhagwat, Training Battalion Commander.

A special mock drill goes like this. Around 20 recruits armed with rifles and grenades surround the LICO hut based on information that some terrorists are taking shelter in the village. The team is divided into sub-groups based on the tasks assigned to them, one to provide protection and secure the area, another to search the house and so on.

Sensors fitted inside the hut act as IEDs (improvised explosive devices), to gauge the alertness of recruits. The sensors are fixed at several places like entrance door, walls, cupboards, utensils, doormat and stairs. “The hiding terrorists will use every possible item in the house to lure the search team into danger. They place the IEDs generally on innocent-looking items,” said an Army instructor.

The most striking feature of Surankot is a tunnel that connects one of the rooms in the hut to an unknown destination outside. “The idea is to expose the recruits to the modus operandi of the terrorists they will encounter while undertaking search operations,” the instructor said.

Interestingly, even foreign army personnel often undergo joint training here.