Rawalpindi police gear-up for Azadi march

Practise firing teargas shells, use of water cannon, dodging stones thrown by protesters, baton charge


Imran Asghar October 24, 2019
Rawalpindi police take part in an anti-riot drill as part of preparation for the JUI-F Azadi march. PHOTO: EXPRESS

RAWALPINDI: Rawalpindi police conducted an intensive anti-riot exercise at Police Lines on Wednesday ahead of possible clashes with protestors heading to the capital in JUI-F Azadi March by the end of this month.

City Police Officer (CPO) Faisal Rana and other high police officials supervised the special riot exercise.

The riot force practiced firing teargas shells, use of water cannon, dodging stones thrown by protesters, and the proper way to conduct a coordinated baton charge.

The personnel also learnt how to protect themselves from protesters in case of an injury with if the protestors resorted to pelting stones and provision of immediate first aid to the injured personnel.

The anti-riot police also performed a formation for arresting maximum number of protesters with a minimum number of casualties on their part in case of a clash between the opposing parties. The senior police officials also educated the personnel regarding different techniques they could use for fending off marchers. The officials taught the anti-riot police personnel that if needed, the rubber bullets should be fired with the direction of wind.

On the occasion, CPO said that Rawalpindi police had summoned as many as 3,000 police personnel from other districts and added that police’s morale was high and nobody would be allowed to take law into their hands.

The police officials said that such kinds of exercises would be organized on a daily basis to keep the personnel charged and prepared.

The distribution of anti-riot gear amongst the anti-riot police personnel was also done during the activity.

Published in The Express Tribune, October 24th, 2019.

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