Special Service Group
The Special Service Group are the special forces of the Pakistan Army. They are also known by their nickname of "Maroon Berets" due to the colour of their headgear.
The SSG is responsible to deploy and execute five doctrinal missions: foreign internal defence, reconnaissance, direct action, counter-terrorism operations, and unconventional warfare.
Other operational roles and responsibilities attributed to the SSG include: search and rescue, counter-proliferation, search and destroy, hostage rescue, information operations, peacekeeping missions, psychological operations, security assistance, and HVT manhunts.
The chain of command and control of the SSG falls within the domain of the Pakistan Army's Strategic Forces Command, and many of its personnel are directly recruited into the Inter-Services Intelligence 's counter-terrorism division or SS directorate upon their retirement. 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.
History
Roots of establishment
In 1950, the Pakistan Army established the school, Close Quarter Battle School, dedicated for teaching the methods of close quarters combat under Colonel Grant Taylor of the British Army in Quetta, Balochistan in Pakistan– the school was later moved to Attock under Colonel Kahoon, also an officer in the British Army. Citing unknown and unspecified reasons, the Close Quarter Battle School under Col. Kahoon was permanently closed and its passed out personnel who had earlier formed the 312th Garrison Company, a light infantry, initially attached the military unit to the Frontier Force Regiment in 1952— the 312 Gar Coy still remains a part of the Frontier Force Regiment.Creation from the 19th Regiment
In 1953–54, the United States Army raised a special forces unit within the Pakistan Army to provide intelligence and combat defense against Soviet Union's expanding sphere of influence in Central Asia. The U.S. assistance helped raise the special forces unit from the simple infantry regiment, the 19th Baloch, that provided an ideal cover from its covert nature of works. In 1955, the 17th Baloch infantry was incorporated with the 19th Baloch, followed by the special forces training began to conduct under Lt Col. Donald W. Bunte from the Special Forces of the United States Army.On 23 March 1956, the Special Service Group was established as a Battalion under the command of its first commanding officer, Lieutenant-Colonel A. O. Mitha, after founding the under the advisement of army officers from the U.S. Army's Special Forces. The Special Service Group's institution and the physical training remained under the command of Lt-Col. Mitha until 1961–62. The headquarter of the Army Special Service Group was then based out in Cherat, Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa in Pakistan.
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.
In 1964, the Parachute Training School was established under the watchful guidance of 101st Airborne Division of the U.S. Army, and training on the desert warfare with U.S. Special Forces' Mobile Training Team begin, followed by the Navy SSG established by the U.S. Navy SEALs as a deep diving team, which was known for its physical training in Karachi in 1966–70.
In 1970, the Musa Company was established that solely specialized in anti-terrorist operations, receiving training from the British Special Air Service advisers after U.S. had suspended the International Military Education and Training program with Pakistan in 1981.
The 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. In August 1965, the operational scope of the Army SSG was expanded from a battalion-size to larger special operation outfit. In 1968–70, the Pakistan Army integrated the Chinese introduced physical training, tactics, weapons, and equipments.
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 special reconnaissance mission in the former tribal belt near the porous Durand Line– the Afghanistan-Pakistan's line of international border. In 1960–61, the Army Special Forces team under Major Mirza Aslam Beg had successfully inserted in Dir and took control of the law and order situation by removing the instigating Nawab of Dir in Chitral in North-West Frontier Province.In 1964–65, the teams of Special Service Group that entered Indian-administered Kashmir failed in executing Operation Gibraltar due to lack of understanding of the local culture and language and was eventually met with hostility from the locals who alerted the Indian government authorities.
The second war with India saw the testing and shaping of the Army Special Service Group when the Indian Army charged and invaded the Pakistan-side of Punjab in response to the covert actions took place in Indian Administered Kashmir. The airborne missions of the Army Special Service Group included performing the combat parachuting at the Indian airbases with an intention of launching a ground assaults in the Indian Air Force's air stations in Pathankot, Adampur, and the Halwara. 180 SSG commandos boarded a Pakistan Air Force's C-130 Hercules, the three airborne formations were flown detected on the night of 7 September 1965, first performing combat jumping at Pathankot at 02:30 hours but the wind velocity led to the scattering of the teams, due to the difficult terrain and poor visibility, none of the teams were able to re-group after the drop. Of the 180 commandos dropped, 138, including all officers but one, were captured and safely taken to prisoner of war camps. Twenty-two were lynched by villagers armed with sticks, police and even bands of muleteers released by the Indian Army, from the animal transport battalion of the nearby Corps headquarters.
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.
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 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. By 1970–71, the Pakistan Army had permanently posted one Army Special Service Group 3rd Commando Battalion in East-Pakistan under Lt-Col. Tariq Mehmood, begin working with local authorities in maintaining security situation in the East-Pakistan, near the border of Eastern India. The performance of the Army Special Service Group was reported to be much better than their performance in 1965, with 1st Command Battalion and 2nd Commando Battalion engaged in several of their successful sabotage missions against the Indian Army's artillery and infantry regiments, while the 3rd Command Battalion in East oriented towards successfully engaging in the seek and destroy missions. Their final mission included the mounting of the successful defense of the Shahjalal International Airport against the Indian Army-backed Mukti Bahini, and were the last army special forces formation that had departed from the airport before the Dacca fall to India on 16 December 1971.
From 1972 to 1977, 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 armed insurgency in Balochistan in Pakistan.
War in Afghanistan
In 1979–89, the Army Special Service Group had been seconded in covert actions in Afghanistan against the Soviet Union's armed intervention. There have been unconfirmed reports of the Army Special Service Group engaging in armed battles with the Soviet paratroopers in incidents including the Battle for Hill 3234 and the Operation Magistral.When the Battle for Hill 3234 concluded, the Soviet paratroopers found that the Afghan mujahideen actually wore the black uniforms with rectangular black-yellow-red stripes, and suspected to be Army Special Service Group personnel; Pakistan's government has officially denied their involvement. The American author, Aukai Collins, identified the elements as "Black Storks" who crossed the border to join the Afghan mujahideen – a claim also backed by American author, David Campbell. Another battle was taken place between the Soviet paratroopers and the Afghan mujahideen in Kunar in 1986 that suspected the Army Special Service Group's involvement but the Russians dismissed the claim and noted that the battle was fought between the GRU's 15th Spetsnaz Brigade and Abdul Rab Rasul Sayyaf's group.
Siachen, Kargil, and war on terror
When the Indian Army's conducted an expedition to take control of the Siachen Glacier from Pakistan, the ISI's Covert Action Division inserted in the region, confirming the intrusion and movement of Indian Army soldiers in 1983. The Army Special Service Group was immediately deployed to engage in the armed battle with the Indian Army at above sea level. Led by Captain Muhammad Iqbal, the only 12-men Army Special Service team had to hiked at the to reach the Indian Army's resting camp. The battle with the Indian Army ensued and Special Service Group commandos but they did not gain much due to adverse weather conditions and enormous heightsOver the years, the Army Special Service Group have developed expertise in high altitude warfare, and are regularly deployed in Siachen.
Since 2001, the Army Special Forces have been engaged in counterinsurgency and counter-terrorism operations in Afghanistan and remote areas in areas adjacent to Afghanistan—their notable operations in Pakistan included the 2007 Lal Masjid siege in Islamabad. The Special Forces teams also taken parts in raiding and attacking the terrorists elements in near border with Afghanistan, working often with U.S. Army's Special Forces in Afghanistan.
In 2014, the Special Service Group were 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.