Capacity-building: Training school for bomb disposal unit near completion

Officials from regular police force will also be trained at the facility.


Our Correspondent December 01, 2014

PESHAWAR: The Bomb Disposal Unit (BDU) Training School in Nowshera is near completion and will soon be made functional.

Special Branch AIG and head of the BDU in Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa, Shafqat Malik told The Express Tribune that previously they had to send their personnel to Risalpur where they would get trained by the army, or to Lahore to attend courses conducted by the Civil Defence department. He said they even had to send their personnel abroad for basic and refresher courses. But now their long-standing demand is finally being fulfilled in the shape of a training school.

“This school will prove a real asset and become the backbone of the BDU in the province; it will be the first training school to be run by the police in the country.”

Malik said it is important for BDU personnel to be more efficient in dealing with attacks by militants as with the passage of time the latter are adopting more complicated ways, especially those in the shape of booby traps.“Personnel need to attend refresher courses to upgrade their skills so that they can be trained in countering these patterns efficiently.”



He added there had been casualties in the past due to a lack of such capacity-building courses and unavailability of proper equipment. Shafqat said the school will be able to train a batch of 50 personnel at a time and police officials will also be trained along with the BDU staff.

He said the first phase of the training will offer a basic course of four weeks and a refresher course of two weeks, adding that in the second phase they were planning to introduce a Post Blast Investigation (PBI) course in which personnel will be taught to manage the crime scene.

“We have acquired the latest kits and equipment, including robots. The establishment of a BDU training service will serve as a complete package to solve most of our problems.” He said they have also been provided personnel from the regular police force who will be trained to handle explosive devices till the BDU reaches the site.

Previously, BDU was only available in militancy-hit areas but as terrorism is spreading in different parts of the province the unit has a new vision according to which two teams will be deployed in each district of the province while four teams will be assigned to Peshawar. This deployment will be made out of the unit’s 450 personnel, including those from the regular police force.

A canine unit which was established in Peshawar has been separated from the BDU and is present in all the seven divisional headquarters.

Published in The Express Tribune, December 2nd, 2014.

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