Ground-breaking ceremony held for KP police training center

ISLAMABAD: A ground-breaking ceremony was held on Thursday for the second phase of the Joint Police Training Center (JPTC), which will double its existing capacity at a cost of almost 924 million Pakistani rupees ($8 million). 
The US Embassy said its International Narcotics and Law Enforcement Affairs Section gave Khyber Pakhtunkhwa (KP) police more than 1 billion rupees for the first phase, and equipment worth 196 million rupees.
Since its launch in June 2014, more than 4,000 KP police personnel, including more than 100 female commandos, have trained at the JPTC.
Thursday’s ceremony “marks another step in the long partnership” between the embassy’s anti-narcotics section and KP police, said section Director Gregory Schiffer.
“The JPTC has established itself as a premier facility providing training for hundreds of KP police officers on modern policing practices, investigations, and command level courses,” he added.
“The JPTC has helped the KP police develop its own specialized training capacity to respond to emergencies, including terrorism-related cases,” Schiffer said.
“For almost 40 years,” the two countries “have worked to improve citizen security and enhance law enforcement capacity across Pakistan.”