Women Officers of the Afghan National Army Training in Army’s OTA Chennai

NEW DELHI: Continuing with its strong support towards institution-building in Afghanistan, India has begun training a fresh batch of women officers to belong to the Afghanistan National Army (ANA).

An officer told, “20 women officers of the Afghanistan National Army have come to Officers Training Academy for training.”

These women officers are undergoing a four-week long course which started from 25 November will end on December 21. During this period the ANA women officers will undergo physical training, drills, weapon training, tactical training, military leadership, human resources management, and computer training told the officer quoted above.

The officers will also be given communication skills classes. The Officers Training Academy in Chennai is the pre-commission military academy in India where women cadets are trained.

This is the third such course for the women officers of the Afghanistan National Army. The first such batch of 20 officers came in 2017 and it was followed with 19 more women officers coming in 2018.

ANA male officer cadets have been continuously trained at the OTA Chennai and Indian Military Academy, Dehradun. While the strength of these officers remains between 15 to 20 cadets per term, it is about 50 cadets in the IMA in each term of six-month duration.

India and Afghanistan have a strong relationship with the two countries signing Strategic Partnership Agreement in October 2011.

In its bid to strengthen Counter-Terrorism capability, India in October this year gave two more Mi-24Vs helicopter gunships with two given in May earlier this year. The four new helicopter gunships are a replacement for four attack helicopters gifted by India to Afghanistan in 2015 and 2016.

India has been continuously involved in institution building in Afghanistan along with developmental assistance reaching more than $3 billion.

Source: NIE