The women commandos are likely to be reserved for deployment in situations where a woman militant is involved, the officials said. Tamil Nadu Chief Minister J Jayalalithaa and former UP chief minister Mayawati, women politicians who are entitled to NSG protection, recently turned down a proposal to include women commandos as part of their security detail.

“We are still evaluating the deployment of women commandos in an operation,” NSG director-general Subhash Joshi said.

A senior official who declined to be identified said it may not be “practical” to have a woman commando in a live situation. “There was an intelligence input once that the Lashkar-e-Toiba was raising a women’s wing. To counter possible attacks by women militants, we raised our women’s wing. But it may not be immediately practical to send them for such operations. We have prepared them for any eventuality, but are not keen to deploy them in operations yet.”

The NSG, which provides security to 16 personalities, has 25 women commandos. The refusal by Mayawati and Jayalalithaa to have women in their security ring had come as a surprise to the NSG, another officer said.