Female cop contingent leaves for Haiti

16 May 2010, 18:00 PM

Staff Correspondent

Bangladesh yesterday sent its first all-female police contingent to a UN peacekeeping mission in Haiti. A total of 45 female police personnel out of 160 of the all-female contingent flew to Haiti in a UN charter flight from Shahjala International Airport. Some 50 male police personnel of another contingent also boarded the same plane to join another UN mission in the same country. There are a total of 320 male and female police personnel in both the contingents and the reaming personnel are scheduled to fly on June 3. AKM Kamrul Ahsan, information officer of Police Headquarters said additional police commissioner Begum Rokfar is the commander of the all-female contingent while Superintendent of Police Abu Saleh Mohammad Golam Mahmud is in charge of the male contingent. He said both the contingents will help rebuild the earthquake ravaged Haiti apart from restoring peace and security. Bangladesh has been participating in the UN peacekeeping missions since 1980 and the first Bangladeshi formed police (FPU) unit was sent in 2005. There are currently 12 Bangladeshi FPUs including the two contingents working in the Ivory Coast, the Democratic Republic of Congo, East Timor and Darfur and a total of 1,924 police personnel are so far engaged in UN missions.