The Lahore Police have decided unanimously to make all policemen, including lower and upper subordinates, to go through a “shooting exercise”, Pakistan Today has learnt through reliable sources. The exercise will also help the Lahore Police to control terrorism and reveal the capacity and accuracy of cops. According to details, top cops of the Lahore Police have decided to conduct this exercise in the coming two weeks and in this regard preparations were underway. Source said that the shooting exercise would be held at the Rangers Firing Range probably and in this regard talks with officials of other law enforcement agencies were underway but the firing range had not been decided yet. According to sources, top cops of the Lahore Police had various options such as the firing range located at Police Lines or firing range of the Elite Force at Burki Road.
Sources said that the exercise will continue for around a month and both upper and lower subordinates of the Lahore Police will takes part in the exercise. Sources said that primarily top cops will prefer around 7,000 cops of the operation wing. Sources said that later on cops deployed at Police Lines will go through the aforesaid exercise. All divisional SPs and DSPs will also be encouraged to take part in the exercise. Sources said that for conducting the shooting exercise at such a big level also involved thousands of bullets, which were already available with the Lahore Police and in case of shortage of bullets during the exercise, more bullets would also be provided to authorities to accomplish the job.
Sources disclosed that the shooting exercise was planned due to the ongoing terror threats in the city, as accuracy in hitting targets will help police in controlling such activities in the city. Sources disclosed that the shooting exercise will be a test case as well for capability of the Lahore Police cops to shoot the target. Superintendent of Police (SP) Headquarters Athar Waheed, confirming the expected exercise, said that planning was underway. He said that police have not finalised the firing range yet. Waheed said that police were avoiding conducting this exercise at firing range of Police Lines at Qila Gujjar Singh due to adjacent located residential area. Responding to a query, the SP said that the shooting exercise will help top cops in testing shooting skills of lower and upper subordinates. To another query, he said that the exercise will help police in catering terror activities in the city and could be considered as a need of hour in ongoing conditions.
Waheed said that basically the shooting exercise was part of their own going training programmes to improve skills of the Lahore Police. He said that presently police have designed four programmes in this regard in which cops were getting training at Police Lines, Qila Gujjar Singh. The SP said that the first programme was designed to sharpen computer skills of the Lahore Police. The second programme included one week training of counter terrorism, muharrar, investigation and operation wing matters. The third programme was designed to teach the use and accurate handling of all kinds of weapons while the fourth course was designed to equip policemen with anti-riots training. Waheed said that the training was an essential part of any uniform force, which finally leads to better human resource management. He said that police have enough resources to build a good force, which could protect life, property and honour of citizens.
