Afghanistan/UK — Queen’s Royal Lancers train new generation of Afghan police

Thanks to the train­ing they have received from ISAF sol­diers, 90 more recruits have just qual­i­fied as ful­ly-trained Afghan Nation­al Police (ANP) offi­cers.

Cor­po­ral Palmer of the Queen’s Roy­al Lancers at the ANP train­ing cen­tre in Hel­mand Source: Cor­po­ral Gary Kendall RLC, Min­istry of Defence, UK Click to enlarge

Amongst the ISAF forces train­ing the new Afghan Nation­al Police at the Hel­mand Police Train­ing Cen­tre in Lashkar Gah are sol­diers from B Squadron of the Queen’s Roy­al Lancers. 

The train­ing cen­tre runs eight-week cours­es for both ANP patrol­men and non-com­mis­sioned offi­cers. At any one time up to 540 patrol­men and 90 offi­cers are in training. 

Recruits are taught vital mil­i­tary skills, polic­ing skills, first aid, lit­er­a­cy and how to counter impro­vised explo­sive devices. 

They also spend time with senior ANP offi­cers learn­ing the sub­tleties of the role of a police­man in Hel­mand and the impor­tance of work­ing with the people. 

B Squadron sol­diers are respon­si­ble for both men­tor­ing and instruct­ing ANP recruits, along with sol­diers from the US Army and US Marines, British infantry sol­diers, the Roy­al Mil­i­tary Police and civil­ian police. 

ANP recruits prac­tise appre­hend­ing a sus­pect Source: Cor­po­ral Gary Kendall RLC, Min­istry of Defence, UK Click to enlarge

The train­ing begins with basic skills and builds towards a series of final exer­cis­es includ­ing run­ning check­points on the main routes in Lashkar Gah. 

The train­ing cul­mi­nates with a parade and pre­sen­ta­tion before the patrol­men deploy to their districts. 

Major Ben Horne, Offi­cer Com­mand­ing of the Hel­mand Police Train­ing Cen­tre, said: 

“What the sol­diers of the Queen’s Roy­al Lancers are achiev­ing here is incredible. 

“The ANP have a che­quered past but the atti­tude and deter­mi­na­tion of some very young sol­diers is achiev­ing huge­ly pos­i­tive results with the recruits, borne out by reports from ISAF units work­ing with grad­u­ates out in the dis­tricts of Helmand. 

“The recruits leave the train­ing cen­tre with the skills required to fight the insur­gency and the knowl­edge to pro­vide pro­tec­tion to the peo­ple of Helmand.” 

Press release
Min­istry of Defence, UK