The New Nation - Internet Edition

Mamunur Rashid

Members of the much-talked-about SWAT (Special Weapon and Tactic) team will leave for the United States some time in October next for intensive training.

Sources at the Police Headquarters said yesterday that the 24-member team, comprising of police personnel, mainly belonging to the detective branch of Dhaka Metropolitan Police (DMP), will be provided with an intensive training stretching over 35 days in the US.

During the training the members of SWAT will be able to learn how to conduct operation against hardcore criminals.

The US Federal Government is bearing the total cost of the training for the team.

The SWAT team was originally created to deal with all kinds of violent crimes, including tackling the hostage crisis, arresting armed terrorist gangs, kidnappers and robbers without any bloodshed.

The sources said, a month-long high-skilled training for the SWAT members, the first ever in the country, was completed on February 28 beginning from January 28 this year.

The members of the SWAT team were trained by nine experts from the US military, FBI and police for one month as part of their capacity building to fight terrorism and other crimes of serious nature.

The SWAT members have been named "Commandoes."

The SWAT will go for action whenever the existing law-enforcing agencies, even if the elite Rapid Action Battalion (RAB) would fail to deal with the criminal gangs or individuals.

The SWAT members have been equipped with the latest and sophisticated weapons supplied by the US Federal Government.

The Deputy Commissioner of the Detective Branch (DB) of Police Md Masudur Rahman told The New Nation that the SWAT team would be given responsibility to deal with if there was any kind of hostage crisis in the country. This team will work under the direct control of the Dhaka Metropolitan Police Commissioner.

"The training is demanding, intense and difficult, and it requires a great deal of sacrifice from the members who have been picked to be on it," he said.

"The ultimate goal of the team is to quell dangerous emergencies so no one gets hurt or killed, including police officers."

In addition, the reality is that fewer people are harmed when specially trained teams handle crisis situations.

How a unit responds, the actions and movements of the bad guys determine, police said.

"If the bad guys start to move, then the team will do different things" in response, source said.

"The analogy taught to me is that the bad guy is the conductor and law enforcement is the orchestra. His movements determine which tune we play," sources added.

The exercise at the shooting range is called dynamic training, which requires quick action. The "flash-bang" devices are meant to surprise and stun the bad guys before the tactical team moves in. This team will act, as quick response and conduct risky operation in the city and even outside if requires.

The team has also conducted "slow and deliberate" training inside vacant buildings to simulate the response to a person who has barricaded himself inside a dwelling.