Gujrat Police: Varodara Police: बड़ौदा पुलिस को पहली बार मिली AK-47s and INSAS rifles चलाने को...

VADODARA: When the city policemen turned up for their annual firing practice at a firing range in Halol last month, they were a surprised lot. Instead of the usual .410 musket rifle, they were handed over AK-47s and INSAS rifles for firing at their targets. Having handled only .303 rifle and .410 musket rifle all their life, many of them were not prepared for using automatic weapons. For the first time ever, over 1,900 policemen including traffic cops from the city were imparted training to fire from AK-47, INSAS and (self loading rifle) SLRs.

The move came in the wake of terror attacks and looming threats over big cities in Gujarat. The firing practice was held from November 1 to November 5 and November 12 to November 30. "The musket rifle doesn't have magazine and it can fire only one round at a time. We wanted to train the cops in handling the latest rifles so that they can retaliate swiftly during terror attacks," city police headquarters police inspector Kuldeep Sharma, who imparted the training in automatic weapons, said. "During any terror attack, the constables and traffic cops posted on city roads become first victims. Training in handling automatic weapons also increases the confidence of cops and they won't have to wait till the commandos or senior cops reach the spot," Sharma told TOI.

Currently, the police have 18 AK-47s, 105 INSAS rifles and 90 SRLs that are used by police escort teams, commandoes and senior cops. According to police officials, most police constables and traffic cops don't take the firing practice seriously as they think that only armed cops, senior police officials and commandos are supposed to handle arms. "When terrorists opened fire in Mumbai two years ago, the cops posted on city roads became soft targets. We want our cops to be prepared for such attacks," added Sharma, who insisted that all cops be trained in automatic weapons. Over 70 women cops, too, were trained to fire automatic weapons. Every cop was given five rounds to fire and most of them performed averagely as it was their first experience. "We used these automatic weapons for the first time and it was a good learning experience. Handling modern weapons does increase our confidence," police sub-inspector Rahim Sheikh said. According to senior police officials, Gujarat is probably among the only few states that still provides outdated rifles to the police despite the fact that it is always high on the terror threat lists and has witnessed several attacks in the past.