LAHORE - The government is planning to raise an anti-riot force for the provincial metropolis where the police have to handle 10-15 “law and order like situations” on a daily basis.

The special police unit, a replica of the Istanbul’s Riot Police Unit, will be made operational in August.

The move comes almost two years after the city police had shot and killed at least 14 protesters during an operation in Lahore’s Model Town. More than 85 people were also wounded during the clash as the policemen opened gunfire on the violent mob, triggering anti-government protests across the country in June 2014.

Officials say the mega city needs such a unit as people – farmers, workers, paramedics, teachers and officials – throng to the capital from other districts to get their protest registered.

Authorities believe the new unit will be trained specifically to negotiate, control, and disperse mobs. The squad would follow the standard operating procedure on the pattern of the Turkish national police to ease tension.

Police sources say that at least 42 officers, including six policewomen, are getting training in Turkey.  After the completion of their training, the Master Trainers would impart training to 3,000 cops.

DIG (Operations) Dr Haider Ashraf yesterday told The Nation that the establishment of anti-riot unit is part of the initiatives being introduced in the province to build the police capacity.

The DIG said that the force would also be given training to use water cannons, laser and stun guns, and teargas. The riot cops will be equipped with latest shields and sticks, he said, adding that the team would be made fully operational in Lahore on August 14.

The Turkish national police are training the Punjab policemen how to control lawlessness like situation. “This police force will respond to protesters technically and precisely in case the mob sets afire a building, they start pelting the police with stones or they forced their entry into a plaza.”

According to insiders, the existing staff of the city police doesn’t even know how to use the water cannons. The poorly trained staff is unable to tackle violent protests. The past experiences revealed that the untrained policemen often overreacted and their actions brought bad name to the department.

In March 2013, a mob enraged over alleged blasphemy set on fire a number of houses belonging to Christians in Lahore’s Badami Bagh. There was no casualty as members of the Christian community, including women and children, had left the neighbourhood after police advised them to do so. A church and several shops were also torched by the mob.  The violence targeting minorities brought international condemnations because of the poor police response.

Early this year, Punjab chief minister Shahbaz Sharif had announced the establishment of a special police unit on the pattern of the Istanbul Riot Police Unit to deal with protesters. The chief minister stated that the Punjab province would benefit from the experience of the Turkish National Police in the setting up of Riot Police Unit. There will be a separate uniform for officers of the Riot Police Unit,” the CM had announced.

A police spokeswoman yesterday said that the anti-riot force unit and the mounted police would definitely add a new vigour to the country’s largest law enforcement agency.

She said that at least 3000 policemen had been selected for the anti-riot unit. Similarly, the provincial police have also purchased 92 horses for patrolling purposes as the stables were already repaired.

Keeping in mind the bitter experience of Model Town tragedy, the provincial government decided to develop a full-fledged anti-riot unit to deal with the political activists. The officials of the new unit would be equipped with riot gear to help protect themselves and attack the miscreants.

“Instead of official guns and pistols, the anti riot unit would be given personal armor, batons, riot shields, riot helmets and less-than-lethal weapons such as tear gas and rifles that fire rubber bullets,” said Haider Ashraf, who leads the Lahore’s operation police.

This year the provincial government has introduced different schemes to improve the police working and to build the capacity of policemen. The recently launched Dolphin police force and the Police Response Units are part of these initiatives.

The high-tech command, control, and communication system will be made operational in the metropolis, most probably by the first week of October. The first-ever security surveillance system in Lahore is part of the Safe City project to be completed with an estimated cost of Rs10 billion.

All the police patrolling units including Dolphin Force, Police Response Units, and Mobile Squads would be inserted into the integrated system.

The state-of-the-art command, control, and communication system is being established at the Qurban Police Lines in Lahore. Many security and IT experts are engaged by the authorities to fine tune the IC3 project before its launching.