Pune police launch initiative to combat radicalisation of youth

Pune police launch initiative to combat radicalisation of youth

Pune: Having learnt from the past when the youths from Murbad went missing after being radicalised by Islamic State via social networking site and worried about similar stituations taking place in Pune, the city police has started training youths from the Kondhwa area and encouraging them to join the police force.

The police interact with the youth.

Kondhwa is one of the sensitive areas in Pune and has in the past been linked to several terror outfits and suspected person have been arrested from the area.

The police interact with the youth in Kondhwa

The Kondhwa police have kickstarted an initiative to assist and help youngsters from the area to be part of Police Department. As many as 150 youngsters, including girls, have been getting 30-days training about the Police department recruitment which includes physical training, aptitude test, general knowledge and preparing for interviews.

On Monday, the Pune city Police Commissioner K K Pathak inaugurated the event at Lonkar ground in Kondhwa.

Deputy Commissioner of Police (IV) Sudhir Hiremath said, "Youngsters today are brainedwashed. We do not want such manpower to go into bad hands. We want to utilise their brains for good governance. We initially organized various activities in which we involved youngsters to be part of sport and that time I thought that if we guide them properly then they will join police department. I am pleased to see the overwhelming response from the crowd."

Explaining the schedule of 30-day long training, DCP Hiremath said, "The training begins rom 6 am where for three hours they get physical training like sprint, running, overcoming various obstacles and other activities. Later they take a 30-minute break. After the break, there are guest lecturers. Later they have a lunch break. After the break, they again have a lecture on apptitute test and mathematical sum solving."

Shakeel DeteerMuzzawar (23), a resident of Kondhwa who holds a degree in Bachelor in Education, said, "Despite having a degree in teaching today I am jobless and sitting at home with a degree. We being a minority are afraid of the police but recently we have worked with them and noticed that police job is tought job. I plan to join the police department as I feel that I need to break the negative image of police. I want to prove that police are good."

Asma Khan (25), who is pursuing MBA, said, "I am preparing for competitive exams and in private organization the fees and training for such event is around Rs 20,000 and later in lakhs but this is a good initiative."