IPOH: All Civil Defence Department (JPAM) personnel will be exposed to firearms training to face any untoward incidents while on duty.
JPAM director-general Datuk Zaitun Abd Samad said the training was a necessity and an important skill which must be possessed by all personnel.
She said an agreement had been reached with an agency under the Home Ministry to provide the firearms training.
"If our country is under any kind of threat or harm in future, we want to at least ensure that our personnel have been exposed to such training so that they will act more effectively.
"The exposure to firearms is not to prepare them for war, rather we have to be prepared at all times to protect our people," she told reporters after officiating the state JPAM Excellence Award Night 2014 here on Sunday night.
Zaitun said JPAM played a vital role in helping the authorities to look after national security.
"Under the Civil Defence Act 1951, JPAM is a security force aside from the military and the police.
"The only difference is when the military and the police go out to defend the nation, JPAM will be tasked with looking after public security. They are not involved in armed combat," she said.
She added that under the first phase, only permanent JPAM officers would be provided with the training.
"It will then be extended to other personnel in stages," she noted.
Meanwhile, Zaitun said said some 50,000 JPAM personnel nationwide have been asked to be prepared at all times to face any potential disasters in the country.