- Jan 30, 2010
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The Indian Express 10<SUP>th</SUP> February 2010
Chandigarh (Harpreet Bajwa) :- The Special Weapons And Tactics (SWAT) teams of the Punjab Police will be trained by Israeli trainers and 18 such teams will be deployed across the state to tackle any emergency situation. Sources said the Training Wing of the state police has finalised a Delhi-based firm, Ultimate Tactical Private Limited, which will impart training to the first batch of 40 police personnel being selected by the police. Since the training facilities of Punjab police are not equipped for SWAT training, the state police had invited tenders in this regard. Three companies had applied, of which one was disqualified as it could not provide proper documents and the quotation of other company was on higher side. The selected firm has a tie-up with the Security and Protection Training School, Israel, and trainers from Israel along with the personnel of the firm will train the state police. The personnel will be trained for eight weeks in many areas including firing (outdoor, indoor, mobile firing), un-armed combat, offence and defence driving, tactical training and hold-up situations. Since the state police does not have any mobile firing range and the standard of other firing ranges is not up to the mark, they are likely to request the BSF for the outdoor range for spinner firing practice. The police have decided to give training to 40 police personnel for Seventh Battalion of the IRB. Of these, 10 will be selected as trainers and given further training for eight weeks. They will then return to the state police and train others who will be recruited in these teams. A senior officer said, “Nearly Rs 1 crore will be spent in the training of these 40 personnel and the then selected trainers.” The state police have decided to establish 18 SWAT teams, with three teams per police range. Each team will have 40 personnel and will be divided in three units —- an armed unit which will have close quarter battle weapons; the second unit will be tactical unit to chalk out the modalities of operations, negotiate in case of hostage situations; and the third unit will provide technical support and equipment to the team.