Central Reserve Police Force Valor Day in India Date in the current year: April 9, 2025

The Central Reserve Police Force (CRPF) is an armed police organization in the Central Armed Police Forces of India. Its primary role is to maintain internal security by responding to riots and insurgencies.

The history of the CRPF can be traced back to the colonial era. It was established on July 27, 1939 as the Crown Representative’s Police in response to political unrest in the princely states of the British Raj. The main objective of the new police force was to provide security to British citizens in India.

When India gained independence, the Crown Representative’s Police was renamed the Central Reserve Police Force. In the immediate aftermath of independence, its primary role was to quell rebellions in the former princely states that had joined the Indian Union.

In the 1950s and 1960s, the CRPF was also tasked with protecting India’s borders with China and Pakistan from cross-border crime, infiltration, and overt attacks. It participated in the 1962 Sino-Indian War and the 1965 Kutch War with Pakistan, an armed confrontation over the disputed border area of the Rann of Kutch.

On April 9, 1965, the Pakistan Army launched a major offensive on Sardar Post in the Rann of Kutch. A small contingent of the 2nd Battalion of the CRPF successfully repulsed the attack, killing 34 Pakistani soldiers and capturing 4, while losing 6 of their own men. It was an unprecedented battle in which a handful of military policemen fought back a full military brigade and succeeded.

CRPF personnel have also participated in quelling insurgencies in India and have been deployed to UN peacekeeping missions in Haiti, the Maldives, Namibia, Somalia, and Sri Lanka.

Today, the CRPF is the largest unit of the Central Armed Police Forces, with more than 300,000 active personnel. It consists of 247 battalions and includes two special forces units, the Rapid Action Force (RAF), which deals with civil unrest, and the Commando Battalion for Resolute Action (COBRA), which specializes in asymmetrical warfare, i.e. dealing with insurgent groups using guerrilla tactics.

The CRPF also used to include the Special Duty Group, a battalion-sized unit tasked with providing security for the Prime Minister’s official residence and office. However, it ceased to exist when the Central Industrial Security Force (CISF) took over its duties following a security breach in 2024.

April 9 has been declared as Valor Day in the Central Reserve Police Force to commemorate the bravery of the CRPF personnel at Sardar Post. The day is marked with memorial ceremonies, speeches by senior officers and other commemorative events.

Central Reserve Force Valor Day is not the only commemoration day observed in the CRPF. There’s also Police Commemoration Day, which is celebrated on October 21 to honor the memory of CRPF personnel killed by the Chinese Army at Hot Springs in Ladakh on this day in 1959.