Top police officials take part online workshop on ’Intelligence & National Security’’ with Indian counterparts

An online one-day workshop on ‘Intelligence and National Security’ for Sri Lankan police and intelligence officials was conducted yesterday by the Bureau of Police Research & Development (BPR&D), Government of India, Indian High Commission in Colombo said.  

Speaking at the Valedictory program, High Commissioner Gopal Baglay said that such training programs are mutually beneficial to both the countries and quite useful in capacity building of Sri Lankan police officers. 

The High Commissioner emphasized the significance of addressing shared security challenges collectively by India and Sri Lanka, and in this context, called for promoting security cooperation between the two countries. The High Commissioner commended the existing mechanism for sharing information and experience and specifically mentioned that in recent months Indian security agencies on the request of Sri Lankan counterparts, apprehended Sri Lankan fugitives who had fled to India.

On this occasion, V S K Kaumudi, Special Secretary, Ministry of Home Affairs, Government of India commended the organization of the workshop. He stated that Sri Lankan agencies may use provisions of Mutual Legal Assistance Treaty while seeking assistance from India in investigation matters. From Sri Lanka, DIG, Special Branch, Mr T C A Dhanapala appreciated the deliberations of the workshop and thanked the Government of India for organizing this workshop.  

Pertinently, this workshop was organized under the ongoing e-ITEC (Indian Technical and Economic Cooperation) training courses that commenced on January 27. The workshop covered topics related to national security including counter terrorism, radicalization and threats to VIPs. Domain experts Mr D P Sinha, Mr Sudeep Lakhtakia and

Mr Prabhakar Alok from India shared their experiences with over 25 senior police officers including DIGs and SSPs of Sri Lanka, the High Commission said. It may be mentioned that under the current online training program so far, 5 of the scheduled 10 modules have been successfully completed with the participation of over 125 Sri Lankan police officers.