MUZAFFARABAD: The police department in Azad Jammu and Kashmir (AJK) has established a ‘school of investigation’ in the state capital as part of its efforts to build up the investigation skills of police personnel.

Inauguration of the school was performed by Inspector General of Police (IGP) Dr Amir Ahmed Sheikh in Police Lines on Monday.

The IGP unveiled the plaque and went round the building, housing a computer lab and two small rooms for crime scene inspection.

Talking to reporters on the occasion, he maintained that policing in the current scenario had undergone multifarious changes with new dimensions and trends in criminology and criminal psyche cropping up with each passing day.

According to him, the traditional policing was facing some serious problems in the given circumstance mainly because the technological interventions and exposure of the general public as well as the criminals to globalisation had complicated the working of police personnel.

“It’s high time for us to fully commingle traditional policing with unconventional modes and techniques, and pass on this new knowledge to our investigation officials so as to enable them to efficiently get to the bottom of white-collar crime, cybercrime, and other anti-social crimes in addition to the incidents of terrorism, sectarianism, extremism, homicide etc.,”he said.

The IGP expressed the hope that the school would augment the capacity of police investigators, focusing more on basic investigation courses at three different levels, followed by the specialised short courses in different unconventional fields.

He was of the view that given its small size, both in terms of area and population, high literacy and low crime rate, AJK could be made a role model for other areas of the country.

He declared that similar institutions would also be set up within a month at divisional headquarters Mirpur and Rawalakot.

Earlier, briefing the police chief, SSP Kamran Ali, who is the focal person of the project, said that in the present age, it was important to equip police officers with the latest investigation tools and techniques to functionally curb the menace of rising trends of criminal activities.

Published in Dawn, January 24th, 2023