Hyderabad: Women cops undergo training in 'Hapkido'

Hyderabad: As many as 175 women police personnel working under Rachakonda Police Commissionerate here were imparted training in Hapkido--a Korean martial art—as part of the International Women's Day.

Actress Isha Koppikar, along with her master Sardar Md Shaik trained women police self-defence techniques to empower them and make them strong to face challenges in their daily duty delivery, Rachakonda Police Commissioner Mahesh M Bhagwat said on Thursday.

Koppikar has a black belt in Taekwondo and also an expert in Hapkido, and her master is an expert in Hapkido with around 40 years of experience.

The Rachakonda Women Police from all ranks ranging from Home Guards to Deputy Commissioners of Police, who underwent the Hapkido techniques on Wednesday, said this programme is very useful for them especially when they participate in decoy operations.

"Police self-defence is a vital component of officer survival training. As a matter of fact, in order to be prepared for today's dangerous and unpredictable world, police officers need to learn self-defence for both armed and unarmed encounters," Bhagwat said.

Hapkido has a wide variety of self-defence techniques to suit police personnel and it improves self-defence tactics and also develops self confidence in women Police Personnel, the senior police officer explained.

Hapkido training will be helpful for Women Police in their daily duties like catching the criminals and arresting the accused like snatchers and eve teasers, Bhagwat added.

Bhagwat further highlighted the good work of ‘SHE Teams’ (which keep an eye on eve-teasers ) and said around 1,000 eve teasers were caught through teams over the past eight months under the Rachakonda Commissionerate.

Furthermore, all of them were counselled by professional counsellors along with their parents.

Koppikar, on her part appreciated the work of SHE Teams and expressed her desire to see brothel houses closed.