Lack of motivation?: Dolphin Squad plan hits a snag

CM had announced in May 2014 that the unit will become operational by year’s end.

LAHORE: The formation of the Dolphin Squad, a police unit to check street crime, has been delayed because no SP is willing to join the squad and go to Turkey for training, The Express Tribune has learnt. The chief minister had announced in May that the unit would become operational by the end of the year 2014.

A committee had selected 29 policemen to attend two-month training in Turkey.

The selected policemen are: DSP Arif Mahmood, DSP Mir Kashif Khalid, DSP Shahzad Rafiq, DSP Mahmoodul Hassan, DSP Abdullah Jan, Inspector Muhammad Ghias, Inspector Tajammul Hussain, Inspector Atif Mairaj, Inspector Rehan Jamal, Inspector Mansoor Ahmad, Inspector Nasrullah, Inspector Raza Rauf, Inspector Muhammad Asif, Inspector Khalid Javed, Inspector Imran Haider, SI Farhan Sultan, SI Usman Ali Qadri, SI Muhammad Naeem Anjum, SI Sanawar Hussain, SI Ghulam Rasool Awan, SI Waqas Hassan, SI Muhammad Asim, ASI Farhan Hussain, ASI Waqas Afzaal, ASI Rizwan Shakeel, Head Constable Khurram Shahzad, Constable Muhammad Tauseef and Constable Muhammad Adnan Raza.

Operations DIG Haider Ashraf, SP Umer Saeed, SP Mujahid Zahid Nawaz Marwat and two Turkish police officials, Yucel Bugdyci and Levent Eken, were members of the selection committee.

A senior police officer, requesting anonymity, said that none of the SPs in the city was willing to join the force. “The name of SP Marwat has been proposed. However, it is uncertain whether he will join the force or not so far,” he said.

SP Saeed said that 1,200 policemen would be inducted in the force. “The batch of 29 policemen will return to Pakistan after receiving training and then train the rest of the personnel,” Saeed said. He stated that the selected policemen will travel to Turkey within a month.

Head Constable Khurram Shahzad told The Express Tribune that he was very excited on his selection for the Dolphin Squad. “I will return to Pakistan after learning innovative techniques for controlling street crime,” he said.

Inspector Imran Haider said that he was looking forward to receiving training from the experts in Turkey. “I will transfer the knowledge and skills I learn from the Dolphin Unit in Turkey to the policemen selected in Pakistan for the force,” he said.

On May 31, Chief Minister Shahbaz Sharif had announced the formation of the squad along the lines of the Dolphin Unit in Turkey. He had met a delegation of the Turkish national police, led by Mustafa Ozguler.

He had said that the force would be operational by the end of the year 2014.

Home Minister Shuja Khanzada, the inspector general of police, the home secretary and the Punjab Information Technology Board chairman were also present at the meeting. Sharif had said that Turkish police experts would train master trainers. He said that a command and control centre would be set up in Lahore along the lines of the centre in Istanbul.

Published in The Express Tribune, January 1^st, 2015.