The joint tactical demonstration exercise code-named “Within the Borders 2025” organized by the Special Police Unit of the Federal Police Administration was successfully carried out yesterday, June 17th, at the Police Academy in Sarajevo.
Units from several cantonal Ministries of Internal Affairs also participated in the exercise, including Ministry of Internal Affairs of Canton Sarajevo (CS), Ministry of Internal Affairs of Tuzla Canton (TC), Ministry of Internal Affairs of Bosnian-Podrinje Canton (BPC), Ministry of Internal Affairs Central Bosnia Canton (CBC), as well as the Unit for the Protection of Persons and Buildings of the Federal Police Administration.
The highlight of the event was the tactical-demonstration exercise which demonstrated the capabilities and coordination of the special units in the simulation of a high-risk situation.
The commander of the Federal Police Administration Special Unit, Mustafa Selmanovic, said that this type of exercise is truly needed by the police forces in the Federation.
“Members of the Federal Police Administration work and train a lot for preventive reasons so that at a certain moment they can provide the response that the other side deserves. We also cooperate a lot with other cantonal ministries and police agencies from across Bosnia and Herzegovina (BiH),” he emphasized.
In the demonstration exercise – a hostage crisis – he added, four cantonal ministries participated as well as the Helicopter Group of the Armed Forces of BiH (AFBiH), and about 150 members of the special police forces in the Federation of BiH (FBiH).
This exercise, commander Selmanovic concluded, once again confirmed the high level of training and readiness of the police forces in BiH for effective action in crisis situations.
The director of the Police Academy, Ervin Musinovic, said that they currently have 400 cadets in basic police training who are attending the theoretical part of the training, as well as 100 cadets from the Ministry of Internal Affairs of the CBC in practical police training and that it will take several years for the cadets to reach the level of training and readiness that could be seen yesterday during the exercise.
“As for the accommodation capacities of the Police Academy, we have significantly increased them. There used to be about 250, and now they amount to 570. We plan through public procurements to expand additional capacities in order to meet the needs of the police administrations in the cantonal administrations,” Musinovic concluded.
