US ‘training facility’ in Sihala closed

The Dawn, Jan 1
RAWALPINDI, Dec 31: A United States-operated training facility for Pakistani security forces at the Police College Sihala has been closed for being vulnerable to terrorist attacks, a senior police officer told Dawn.

College commandant Nasir Khan Durrani confirmed the closure, saying: “Yes, I have been verbally informed by the interior ministry about it.”

American instructors had started training Pakistani police in counter-terrorism techniques at the facility in 2003.

The presence of the foreign staff had exposed the Sihala college, a premier training institution of the Punjab police located in the capital territory, to the extremist groups currently active across the country.

A senior police official said the shifting of the US instructors and closure of the facility came in the light of two separate reports – one sent by the commandant and the other one by the Islamabad police, in which it was intimated that under the prevailing security circumstances, the training facility should be much secure if relocated somewhere in the heavily-guarded Diplomatic Enclave.

Sources said the police had suggested to the authorities that facilities of the training centre should be handed over to the Sihala college administration after they were vacated by the US instructors. A separate firing range and an armory have been built at the college. http://www.dawn.com/wps/wcm/connect/dawn-content-library/dawn/the-newspaper/national/us-training-facility-in-sihala-closed-110