APF (Armed Police Force) Ranks and Insignia: Full Hierarchy with Pay Scale

The Armed Police Force, Nepal (Nepali: सशस्त्र प्रहरी बल, Sashastra Prahari Bal), commonly abbreviated APF, is Nepal's federal paramilitary law-enforcement organisation. It was established on 24 October 2001 and operates under the Armed Police Force Act, 2058 (2001). The force functions under the Ministry of Home Affairs, distinct from both the civilian Nepal Police and the Nepal Army.

The APF was created principally to handle counter-insurgency, internal armed conflict, border security, disaster response, and the protection of vital installations and infrastructure. Because its mandate sits between ordinary policing and military operations, its rank ladder deliberately mirrors Nepal Police titles while each rank also carries a recognised Nepal Army equivalent. The force is headed by the Inspector General of APF, who reports to the Ministry of Home Affairs.

The senior, commissioned-equivalent tier of the APF is made up of gazetted officers (Nepali: राजपत्रांकित). These run from the Inspector General at the top down through the superintendent and inspector grades. Each gazetted rank is graded into a 'special class', 'first class', 'second class' or 'third class' that aligns with the wider Government of Nepal service classification, and each maps to a Nepal Army officer rank for protocol and equivalence purposes.

The Inspector General (IG) is the chief of the force and the highest rank. Below the IG come the Additional Inspector General (AIG), Deputy Inspector General (DIG), Senior Superintendent of Police (SSP), Superintendent of Police (SP), Deputy Superintendent of Police (DSP) and Inspector. These officers hold command of headquarters directorates, regional and provincial commands, brigades, battalions and specialised units.

Below the inspector grade sit the non-gazetted ranks (Nepali: राजपत्र अनंकित), which form the backbone of the force. This tier runs from Senior Sub Inspector down to Constable. As with Nepal Police, the APF expanded this lower structure in recent years, adding the Senior Sub Inspector, Senior Head Constable and Assistant Head Constable grades to create clearer promotion steps for personnel.

The entry rank is the Constable (Sipahi), the equivalent of an army rifleman and the first responder for most field duties. Beneath the formal combatant ranks, the APF also retains 'Follower' (anugami) positions, an unclassified category of non-combatant support staff.

APF rank is displayed on the shoulder (epaulette) and follows the same heraldic logic used across Nepal's uniformed services. Officer insignia combine the national emblem and a crossed sword-and-baton device with a varying number of stars, so that higher officers carry more stars or additional command devices. Non-gazetted ranks are indicated mainly by stars and chevrons/bars rather than the senior command devices.

Among the non-gazetted grades the star count is the clearest marker: the Sub Inspector group carries the larger star counts and the Assistant Sub Inspector fewer, stepping down to the constable grades. The APF khukuri (kukri), an official issue side-arm carried by lower ranks, is essentially the same as the Nepal Police pattern but bears the APF's own monogram on the back of the hilt, distinguishing the two forces. Because precise badge layouts are defined in internal regulations and updated periodically, the authoritative reference for the exact device on each rank is the official APF ranks page.

APF personnel are paid on the Government of Nepal scale, with a fixed monthly basic salary attached to each rank plus a grade increment for years of service. The basic salary rises with rank, from the constable/entry grade up to the Inspector General. The figures below reflect a recently published APF pay scale; basic salary and allowances are revised by the government from time to time (typically in the national budget), so the exact rupee amounts should always be checked against the latest official notification.

Beyond basic pay, APF members receive a package of allowances and welfare benefits. These commonly include rations, uniforms and equipment, housing or a housing allowance, travel/transfer allowances, medical facilities for the member and dependents, and post-service entitlements such as pension and gratuity. These benefits, rather than basic pay alone, make up a substantial part of total compensation.

The APF rank ladder is deliberately parallel to Nepal Police. Both services use the same English titles and Nepali nomenclature for nearly every grade — Inspector General, Additional/Deputy Inspector General, the superintendent grades, Inspector, the Sub Inspector grades, the head-constable grades and Constable — and both place the Inspector General at the apex of a 14-rank structure (followers/support staff aside).

The practical difference is organisational rather than titular: Nepal Police is the civilian police service responsible for general law and order and criminal investigation, while the APF is a paramilitary force structured into battalions and brigades for armed internal-security tasks. Because of that paramilitary design, every APF rank also carries a published Nepal Army equivalent, which Nepal Police uses far less prominently. So a reader translating between the two can treat the titles as one-to-one, while remembering the APF rank additionally corresponds to an army grade (for example, IG ≈ Lieutenant General, DIG ≈ Brigadier General, Constable ≈ Rifleman).