The latest gadget in the armour of Special Protection Group, the crack commando force that protects the Prime Minister and four other VVIPs, are electronic stunners that look just like an ordinary laptop.
The device will electronically stun and numb any attacker managing to come in close proximity of any of the SPG's protectees. Besides Prime Minister Manmoan Singh, others protected by this crack force -- raised after Indira Gandhi's assassination -- are Congress President Sonia Gandhi, her children Rahul and Priyanka, and former prime minister Atal Bihari Vajpayee.
The stunner took guard just outside room number 9 of the Parliament House or the Prime Minister's chamber early this week since the SPG felt anybody could walk up to the chamber once inside the Parliament House, as movements around the chamber on the ground floor are not restricted.
A similar stunner was installed outside the Parliament office of Sonia Gandhi.
Sources in the Prime Minister's Office said the stunner will, henceforth, be deployed near Dr Singh whenever he appears in public and where it cannot rule out the possibility of the manual cordon around him to prevent anybody come close to him.
The SPG has also been trained on how to guard its protectees against any object flung at them like in the case of US President George Bush, who narrowly missed a pair of shows thrown at him by a journalist while he was on his farewell tour of Iraq
Training VVIPs
The SPG personnel have been told to sensitise their protectees with a small quick response training to duck such small projectiles. They have also been trained on positioning themselves close to the protectee in a manner that they can bodily prevent any object hitting him, the sources said.
They do not rule out Dr Manmohan Singh, Sonia Gandhi and Rahul Gandhi -- who are the SPG-protected VVIPs -- coming under this kind of attacks, particularly during the parliamentary election campaigns.