Home Minister Sahara Khatun announced yesterday that the government will soon send an all-female police contingent to a United Nations peacekeeping mission.
Bangladesh will become the first Muslim nation in the world to commit an all-female contingent.
The home minister made the announcement while inaugurating the third meeting of the Doctrine Development Group (DDG) on Formed Police Units (FPU).
The meeting was organised by Bangladesh police and the UN Department of Peacekeeping Operations and it was held at the Sheraton Hotel in Dhaka.
Sahara said that the decision to commit an all-female FPU contingent reflects Bangladesh's commitment to maintaining international peace and security.
She also said that Bangladeshi police have made important contributions to UN peacekeeping missions over the last three years.
The DDG meeting aims to develop a uniform curriculum for FPUs in pre-deployment training.
FPU contingents currently follow curriculums developed by their own country before joining UN peacekeeping missions -- so the standards can vary from one country to another.
Bangladesh is hosting the five-day DDG meeting, which involves 52 participants from 35 countries.
New York hosted the previous meeting and Italy was host in 2008.
Additional Superintendent of Police (UN Affairs) Mohammad Atiqul Islam said that Bangladesh has been participating in UN peace keeping missions since 1980.
The first Bangladeshi FPU was sent in 2005.
There are currently 10 Bangladeshi FPUs working in the Ivory Coast, the Democratic Republic of Congo, East Timor and Darfur.
A total of 1,604 police personnel have so far been deployed on UN missions.
Home Minister Sahara Khatun was the chief guest and gave a speech during the opening session, along with State Minister for Home Affairs Shamsul Haq Tuku, Home Secretary Abdus Sobhan Sikder and Chief of Strategic Planning (development section) of the Deployment of Peace Keeping Operations Andrew Carpenter.
The meeting was chaired by IGP Nur Mohammad.
Source: thedailystar.net
