PESHAWAR: Chief Minister Pervez Khattak on Wednesday formally inaugurated the first school of investigation of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa police in Peshawar, which was established to build the capacity of investigation officers and ensure conviction of those involved in different cases of serious nature, particularly terrorism.

According to police officials, a strong need was felt to build the capacity of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa police investigation wing keeping in view the increased use of technology in modern day crimes.

They said that the training imparted in this school, opened in Hayatabad, would enable the police investigators to conduct investigations on scientific lines which in turn would have positive effects on the conviction rate and the overall working of police.

The school is first of police training institutes being set up in KP

The school of investigation, established by the Khyber Pakhtunkhwa police from its own resources, will be headed by a director administration while an officer of the rank of DIG has been appointed to look after the training affairs.

The officials said that the KP police had engaged highly qualified specialists from across the country to deliver lectures to the participants in the school. They have started different capacity building courses for the investigators, including crime scene preservation, evidence collection and preservation, cellular forensics, geo-tagging and geo-fencing for planning crime control, preparation of case file and interview/interrogation techniques.

DIG training Azad Khan briefed the chief minister about the working of various sections of the school, content of modules being taught their and the faculty. Besides visiting various sections of the school Mr Khattak interacted with the first batch of 25 police officers undergoing training in the school.

IGP Nasir Khan Durrani informed the chief minister of the initiatives taken for the capacity building of police and the future plans of police training wing.

This school is the first of a series of training institutes being established as part of capacity building initiative of the Khyber Pakhtunkhwa police. Mr Khattak was informed that the KP police would soon launch a school of intelligence, bomb disposal school, school of traffic management, police training college, Swabi, and police training college, Malakand. The school of intelligence in Abbottabad will be made operational by end of this month.

The IGP told the chief minister that the Khyber Pakhtunkhwa police had become the first police force in the country to establish specialised training institutes for capacity building of its human resource.

The chief minister lauded the vision of KP police leadership and hoped that they would continue to work with the same zeal. Terming police training as priority of his government, Mr Khattak agreed with the IGP’s request for provision of additional classrooms and pledged his government’s continued support to the police department.

Published in Dawn, June 19th, 2014