Specialised training: IGP gives green signal to training cops in handling mobs

K-P to have the country’s first school of public disorder management

PESHAWAR: IGP Nasir Khan Durrani approved the teaching of modules on how to handle mobs at a demonstration ceremony at Peshawar Central Police Office on Friday.

The new training regimes will be implemented at the soon-to-be inaugurated Police School of Public Disorder Management in Mardan. The ceremony was attended by the AIG headquarters, AIG operations, DIG training, DIG headquarters, DG project coordination unit and AIG training.

The demonstration included simulations of various law and order scenarios, both violent and non-violent, and the consequent action taken by the police.

Speaking on the occasion, Durrani said it is a matter of pride for the Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa (K-P) police to become the first force in the country to have established a specialised school for mob-handling training. He said the basic objective of the school is to enable the police force to deal with law and order situations without violating fundamental human rights.

The facility is expected to be inaugurated by the K-P chief minister in the coming days. The school curriculum consists of both academic and physical training modules in mob management.

Public protests are a daily occurrence in democracies all over the world. Without training in how to manage unruly mobs, law-enforcement agencies tend to make matters worse by using indiscriminate force. There have also been numerous incidents in Pakistan where mobs have run riot with police unable to control the situation.

The Peshawar riots of September 2012 are particularly significant to scenarios like these.

Published in The Express Tribune, January 10^th, 2015.