Nalin Prabhat: A real-life Singham appointed J&K DGP

Srinagar: Long before the 2019 Pulwama fidayeen attack, Kashmir saw ferocious bombings and suicidal attacks on national highways, schools, hotels cantonments, camps, and other strategic locations.

But one man who struck terror into the hearts of fidayeens was Andhra Pradesh Cadre IPS officer Nalin Prabhat who was part of the CRPF operations team. Sometimes heading it and sometimes overseeing the operations on the ground.

Nalin Prabhat is appointed as the new DGP, Jammu & Kashmir with effect from October 1, 2024.

A no-nonsense officer with strategic and tactical acumen in counter-insurgency and counter-terrorism, Prabhat had many stints in Kashmir as a part of CRPF after it replaced BSF in Jammu and Kashmir.

Prabhat served CRPF as DIG and IG operations in Kashmir and Additional Director General of Police. His stints were full of action as Pakistan had introduced fidayeen terror into Kashmir to inflict casualties and keep the pot boiling. Besides the army and J&K Police’s Special Operation Group (SOG), CRPF was part of several operations. CRPF and J&K police were responsible for the law and order and anti-terror operations in urban areas of Srinagar while the army’s Rashtriya Riffles was responsible in villages, rural and areas along the Line of Control.

Flashback 2010: A fidayeen attack on a hotel at Srinagar’s Lal Chowk made international headlines. Prabhat, the then DIG CRPF, was specially called to help neutralize the terrorists. The `brilliant’ operation won praise from the then Union Home Minister P. Chidambaram.

Six years later, Prabhat was CRPF’s IG operations when a gun battle rattled Sempora on the outskirts of Srinagar city in 2016. Terrorists holed up in the EDI building after ambushing a CRPF convoy on the highway. Two paramilitary constables were killed in the initial ambush. What followed was a long siege. Army, police, and CRPF conducted an operation that lasted several days. Prabhat was again in the thick of things.

It was these qualities that Prahbat was made DG of the elite National Security Guard (NSG) which he took over just a few months ago. An alumnus of the prestigious St. Stephen's College, he has won several gallantry medials for fighting terrorists and naxals across the country.

As J&K’s incumbent DGP RR Swain is set to retire next month, Prabhat is to fill in his shoes. The Appointments Committee of the Cabinet has curtailed the tenure of Nalin Prabhat, as Director General of, the National Security Guard (NSG).

Sanction has also been given to inter-cadre deputation Nalin Prabhat from Andhra Pradesh to AGMUT Cadre, initially for three years from the date of joining.