35. Employment control of armed parties. (Section 3, Bengal Act II of 1866) (Section 9, Bengal Act IV of 1866). - (a) When armed parties are sent out they shall, as far as possible, be kept in compact bodies under competent officers, fully instructed. They shall be given a specific task to perform and must be fully instructed as to their powers and responsibilities. The armed police shall never be given the routine duty of marshaling or escorting a procession.
(b)The following precautions shall be observed by a police officer in command of an armed party employed for the suppression of a riot or the dispersal of an unlawful assembly, namely :-(i)he shall order bayonets to be fixed to their respective firearms;(ii)he shall give orders to the party to load their respective firearms when he thinks fit;Note. - Loading of firearms without such orders is strictly forbidden, unless it is necessary for the exercise of the right of private defence.(iii)he shall, for the purposes of fire control, ordinarily divide his force into sections of not more than nine men each and place each section under a responsible commander;(iv)he shall at all times bear in mind the danger of the mob so closing on his force that by a sudden rush it may be overwhelmed;(v)he shall so dispose the party that it has as effective a field of fire as circumstances permit;(vi)he shall, if the party is or is likely to be attacked from two directions, post the men in two ranks, each facing one of those directions, with sufficient space between such ranks to enable him to move between the ranks and to control the firing;(vii)if in order to minimise injuries from missiles the party is extended, he shall not allow it to extend so far as to affect his ability to exercise strict fire control.
