MUZAFFARABAD, April 27: A team of British police officers arrived here on Tuesday to impart training to local police and judicial service officials on forensic science as part of a programme aimed at exchange of information and skills between the police force in Azad Kashmir and different UK counties, an official said.

On the first day of arrival, the team members delivered lectures to a batch of 45 officials - seven from the magistracy services and the rest from AJK police - at the Kashmir Institute of Public Administration (KIPA) here on the application of science to decide questions arising from crime or litigation, said Senior Superintendent Police Muzaffarabad Chaudhry Mohammad Sabir.

The 8-member team comprises Superintendent Kevin Morton, Police Ambassador Mohammad Arif, Forensic Officers Christopher Gillies and Gary Atkinson from South Yorkshire Police, Detective Chief Inspector Russell Smith, Inspector Asghar Ali Shah, Inspector Mohammad Hanif from West Midland Police and Sergeant Gib Blair from London Metropolitan.

Mr Sabir, who is also liaison officer of the team, told this correspondent that the British Foreign and Commonwealth Office (FCO) was funding the police in seven UK counties having a sizeable ethnic Asian population to deal with issues like forced marriages and child abduction.

Since Britain is home to nearly 600,000 Kashmiris mainly from the southern belt of Azad Kashmir, the county police have been paying more attention to establish and maintain effective working relationship with the AJK Police, he said.

In this connection, he recalled that the chief constable of West Midland Police and deputy chief constable of South Yorkshire Police had also visited Azad Kashmir at the end of the previous decade whereas in 2001 a Letter of Exchange between the AJK Police and the West Yorkshire Police was also signed.

The SSP said that the team was likely to conduct a demonstration on Wednesday so as to improve the concept of forensic evidence and forensic oratory in the AJK police personnel.

The AJK police, Mr Sabir said, had on their own held fingerprint courses but those could not be applied for want of practical knowledge. They would try to create an artificial crime scene to impart practical knowledge to the participants of the training course, he said.

Also on Tuesday, the team called on the AJK High Court Chief Justice Syed Manzoor Hussain Gillani at his chamber. Justice Gillani has received overwhelming appreciation from the British FCO for several of his decisions against the forced marriages of the British born Kashmiri girls with their relatives in Azad Kashmir.

The team, which had earlier conducted similar courses in Lahore and Sihala, would leave Muzaffarabad on Thursday afternoon for Islamabad where it was scheduled to meet senior interior ministry officials.

It may be noted here that a four-member team from West Yorkshire Police had visited Azad Kashmir in March and conducted a week-long course, entitled "Training of the Trainers," which was attended by 15 AJK police officials.

The West Yorkshire police have also invited AJK Inspector General of Police Shahid Hasan to visit county polices in UK to further the working relations between them and the AJK police, Mr Sabir said.