Police constables and head constables in the city, who are at a loss when it comes to dealing with explosives, are learning the ropes now.
On Friday, 56 of them attended the one-day capsule course on explosives and risk awareness, which commenced on Thursday.
“We are the ones in the police department who work closely with the public. Our job is first to observe everything closely and if anything found suspicious, we should first clear off the public and immediately inform the city security wing,” said B Amarnath, head constable, Gopalapuram police station, who attended the training.
“We are made aware of the types of explosives and the improvised explosive devices, precautions to be taken and how to respond to any emergency situation,” Amarnath said.
Another participant, special branch head constable SQH Jafri, said, “Now we can identify explosives and different bomb parts like detonator, switch and power source. There is a technique in searching and frisking too, and now we know it.”
According to him, a one-day course would certainly not make them certified experts, but the basic knowledge would definitely help in minimising damage.
Explaining about the course, security wing additional DCP MC Pratap said, “The course is mostly about giving awareness. Constables should know where, how and what to look for in case of a security threat.” It will continue till all the constables and head constables in the city are covered, he said.
A constable should be able to handle the situation till the experts arrive, he said. “There are about 30 bomb disposal teams in the city and each team works under an ACP. We have been conducting surprise checks at places like Begumbazar, Ranigunj, Dilsukhnagar, Mehdipatnam and Charminar.”
Kranti Kumar, a bomb disposal expert and instructor, said, “We show the participants visuals of different types of bombs, explosives and IEDs. They are also shown live demos of using equipment like doorframe metal detectors (DFMD), handheld metal detectors (HHMD), non-linear junction detectors (NLJD), explosive detectors (MO2M), deep search metal detectors (DSMD) etc.”