ATTOCK, Dec 24: The district police force would be given military training in anti-terrorist activities to enhance its capability to fight terrorism, police officials said.

The district police officer (DPO), Syed Ali Nasir Rizvi, while talking to Dawn, said that the prevailing wave of terrorism had created serious security concerns among the law enforcement agencies, especially for the police, as the police are in the frontline.

There is added responsibility on the police since apart from performing routine duties, the policemen now have to be highly vigilant against acts of terrorism, in order to ensure safety of the people, DPO further added.

The district police, therefore, have decided to train the police force on modern techniques of combating terrorism, he explained.

For this purpose, the district police in coordination with Command of Artillery Regimental centre Attock cantonment are finalising the procedure of policemen’s military training, he said.

Under the proposed plan, 100 policemen of different ranks would be sent to the Artillery Regimental training centre for military-styled training each month. It is the same training centre which have effectively trained the officials of prison department Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, he said.

After completion of the required modalities, the first batch of policemen would be sent in the next month, January 2013, for military training, Mr Rizvi added.

He further stated that such training would help in enhancing the policemen’s skills of  weapon handling, disarming the terrorists, long/short range firing, climbing on buildings, intercepting suspicious vehicles, conducting raids at the criminal’s hideouts, rescuing injured officials and instantly striking against the  terrorists in case of any emergency.

There are other measures and plans in the pipeline in order to improve the working of police officials, including rehabilitation of Rescue-15, introducing community police system, mobile complaints collection unit and setting up a special GT road force, DPO Mr Rizvi added.