LAHORE: The passing out parade of the 22nd batch of basic Elite course was held at Elite Training School, Bedian, on Friday.

As many as 761 personnel from all districts of the province completed this course in six months. It provided them with modern professional training in accordance with modern requirements, especially skills to deal with terrorism.

Punjab Inspector General of Police (IGP) Inam Ghani chaired the ceremony, while Training Additional Inspector General (AIG) Kanwar Shahrukh, AIG (Logistics) Ali Amir Malik, Punjab Highway Patrol AIG Shahid Hanif, AIG (Welfare) Farooq Mazhar, AIG (Operations) Sahibzada Shehzad Sultan, Counter-Terrorism Department AIG Wasim Ahmed Khan, Training Deputy Inspector General (DIG) Suleiman Sultan Rana, Elite Force DIG Riaz Nazir Gara, DIG (Operations) Sohail Sukhera, Elite Police Training School Commandant Lt Col Faisal Hussain Khattak and Training Deputy Director Major Asad Zaman Kayani and other officers were also present.

During the ceremony, the Elite Force personnel conducted martial arts, firing practice and demonstrated other professional skills to the participants at Shuja Parade Ground.

IGP Ghani distributed prizes among the personnel who showed excellent performance during the training. Among them, Waheed Ahmed was awarded CC-1 and a cash prize for being selected as the best performer, while Omar Idrees was awarded CC-2 and a cash prize for winning the race. Muhammad Zahid was awarded CC-1 and a cash prize for best shooting, while Zulfiqar Ali was awarded CC-1 and a cash prize for demonstrating the best in the parade.

Addressing the ceremony, the IGP hoped that Elite personnel would play their role in eradicating terrorism, occupation mafia, killings, sectarian riots and other serious crimes.

“Protecting the lives and property of the people should be your top priority,” he stressed.

He directed the personnel to perform their duties with high professionalism, discipline, sense of responsibility and impartiality and play their effective role in building a peaceful society and take special care to protect the self-esteem of citizens during duty.

He emphasised that professional duties should be performed with utmost honesty and loyalty to the nation, country and state, while police officers and personnel should sincerely serve and protect the citizens.

Mr Ghani said the shortage of personnel in all the districts of the province should be met on priority and this force would be used only for the protection of life and property of the people.

Published in Dawn, April 10th, 2021