Small-scale rehearsal: Bus drivers practise body, luggage check

Police official said instructions for passengers would be put up in buses

PESHAWAR: Bus drivers were trained on body and luggage check during a rehearsal at Malik Saad Shaheed Police Lines on Saturday. The training was provided a day after they attended meetings on the standard operating procedures (SOPs).

“These drivers and their helpers have to play a key role in the implementation of these SOPs,” a police official told The Express Tribune. “They have to search every one boarding their bus with the help of a metal detector, which costs around Rs3,500.”

He added helpers searched all those passengers who boarded the bus, then made a video of them with their mobile phones and checked the luggage for any suspicious items.

“It was also practiced that suspicious luggage would be dealt with by moving people away from it and calling the bomb disposal unit,” he said.

Written instructions

According to the official, written instructions would be put up inside the buses to instruct passengers to keep a look out for anything suspicious and inform the relevant authorities about it immediately.

“The number of emergency, Recue 1122 and police station would be given along with these instructions,” the police official said.

He added the drivers and their helpers are required to keep the video of passengers in records for 15 days. They will also keep records of people who send luggage via buses along with CNIC numbers. Complete addresses that would be shared with the police in case of emergency.

The official said it was “a small-scale rehearsal” attended by bus drivers, their helpers as well as the police and BDU teams. The large-scale rehearsals would be held at bus stands starting Monday.

The police have issued seven SOPs to the stand managers, drivers and their helpers.

Published in The Express Tribune, March 20^th, 2016.