The Organisation for Counter Terrorist Operations (OCTOPUS) is an elite

counter terrorism Counterterrorism (alternatively spelled: counter-terrorism), also known as anti-terrorism, relates to the practices, military tactics, techniques, and strategies that governments, law enforcement, businesses, and intelligence agencies use to com ...

joint unit of the

Andhra Pradesh Police The Andhra Pradesh Police is the law enforcement agency of the state of Andhra Pradesh, India. Public order and police being a state subject in India, the police force is headed by the Director General of Police, Harish Kumar Gupta, IPS. The ...

in the state of

Andhra Pradesh Andhra Pradesh (ISO 15919, ISO: , , AP) is a States and union territories of India, state on the East Coast of India, east coast of southern India. It is the List of states and union territories of India by area, seventh-largest state and th ...

& and the

Telangana Police The Telangana Police, officially known as the, Telangana Police Department is the law enforcement agency for the state of Telangana in India. It has jurisdiction concurrent with the 33 revenue districts of the state. The police force was create ...

in the state of

Telangana Telangana is a States and union territories of India, state in India situated in the Southern India, south-central part of the Indian subcontinent on the high Deccan Plateau. It is the List of states and union territories of India by area, ele ...

India India, officially the Republic of India, is a country in South Asia. It is the List of countries and dependencies by area, seventh-largest country by area; the List of countries by population (United Nations), most populous country since ...

History

On 1 October 2007, the Andhra Pradesh cabinet approved the formation of OCTOPUS.

Headquarters

OCTOPUS Commando Training Center was inaugurated on 13 August 2012, Andhra Pradesh Chief Minister

Nallari Kiran Kumar Reddy Nallari Kiran Kumar Reddy (born 13 September 1960) is an Indian politician who served as the 16th Chief Minister of Andhra Pradesh between 25 November 2010 and 1 March 2014. He was the last Chief Minister of the Andhra Pradesh before the format ...

at Khalsa Ibrahimpatnam Village near Hyderabad, with 570 acres land area. Before this, they had been based at a makeshift headquarters.

Achievements

* AP OCTOPUS commandos have secured first place in a competition conducted by NSG under the scheme Agni Pariksha 7 in 2021. * They won the championship by scoring more points than NSG and other elite security forces in the competition.

Training

The commandos are trained in handling sophisticated weapons such as Glock-19 pistols,

Colt 9mm SMG The Colt 9mm SMG, also known as the Colt Model 635 or Colt M635, is a 9×19mm Parabellum submachine gun manufactured by Colt, based on the M16 rifle. Design details The Colt 9mm SMG is a closed bolt, blowback operated SMG, rather than the co ...

Franchi SPAS-15 The Franchi SPAS-15 is a dual-mode 12 gauge combat shotgun manufactured by the Italian company Luigi Franchi S.P.A. Design The weapon is based on the SPAS-12, and has similar pump-action/ semi-automatic firing modes. In semi-automatic mode, ...

dual mode shotguns, sniper rifles,

taser Taser (stylized in all caps) is a line of handheld conducted energy devices (CED) sold by Axon Enterprise (formerly Taser International). The device fires two small barbed darts intended to puncture the skin and remain attached to the targe ...

guns and corner shot systems. On 16 November 2012, tenders were invited for the supply of a sample

jet pack A jet pack, rocket belt, rocket pack or flight pack is a device worn as a backpack which uses jets to propel the wearer through the air. The concept has been present in science fiction for almost a century and the first working experimental d ...

unit to the OCTOPUS. Plans have been made to acquire more jetpacks in the future.

Organisation and role

About 100 OCTOPUS personnel have been deployed at the

Tirumala Venkateswara temple The Venkateswara Temple of Tirumala or Sri Venkateswara Swami Temple is a Hindu temple situated in the hills of Tirumala, Tirupati Urban Mandal in the Tirupati district of Andhra Pradesh, India. The temple is dedicated to Venkateswara, a for ...

to oversee the temple security.

Deployment

* October 2013 armed terrorists in Puttur of Chittoor district in the erstwhile AP

After Telangana formation

* July 2017 Muthoot Finance at Happy Homes apartment complex armed robbery.

After bifurcation

Of the 1590 commandos for the OCTOPUS, the force was divided on the basis of options exercised by the staff

References

{{Reflist Andhra Pradesh Police Non-military counterterrorist organizations Specialist law enforcement agencies of India 2007 establishments in Andhra Pradesh Government agencies established in 2007