Amit Shah to attend RAF's raising day ceremony in Gujarat on Sep 30

Union home minister Amit Shah will review the anniversary parade of the RAF, the specialised anti-riot and crowd control paramilitary unit of the country, later this month in Gujarat, officials said on Thursday.

They said Shah will be the chief guest at the 27th Raising Day event of the Rapid Action Force (RAF) at its 100th battalion base in Ahmedabad.

The home minister will take the salute and review the operational preparedness of the blue dungaree donning force, they said.

The RAF raising day falls on October 7, the day it became operational in 1992, but the event has been preponed owing to some commitments of the home minister, they added.

The RAF has a total of 15 battalions based in various cities across the country and its each unit has a strength of over 1,000 personnel.

The 15 existing RAF battalions are based in Secunderabad, Ahmedabad, Allahabad, Navi Mumbai, Delhi, Aligarh, Coimbatore, Jamshedpur, Bhopal, Meerut, Jaipur, Lucknow, Chennai, Hajipur(Bihar) and Nuh (Haryana).

Each RAF battalion is equipped with gadgets and non-lethal weapons like pump action guns, tear-smoke grenade launchers and others to enforce security and law and order in case of protests or riot-like situations.

The force is part of the Central Reserve Police Force, the country's largest paramilitary force or the Central Armed Police Force (CAPF) with over 3.25 lakh personnel.