A row has broken out over arrangements for an exchange visit involving police officers from Bradford and Pakistan.

A delegation from Azad Kashmir visited the city in February, with seven officers from West Yorkshire Police making the return journey the following week.

The on-going partnership is aimed at strengthening links between the two districts and sharing best practice.

But the scheme has been criticised by the Shipley-based chairman of the West Yorkshire Black Police Officers' Association. PC Kash Singh claims the organisation was not informed of the exchange visits, which were also meant to boost community relations.

And he criticised the fact that none of the officers chosen to make the return journey were from ethnic minority backgrounds.

PC Singh said: "What sort of message does that send out to the community in Bradford? Were these trips all about photo calls and public image?"

The West Yorkshire delegation included Bradford's community relations co-ordinator PC Anne Griffin, Toller Lane race relations officer Sergeant Roy Wensley, Detective Sergeant Paul Harrison from Toller Lane CID, Keighley community safety officer Sergeant Allan Gee and Bradford community and race relations officer Inspector Martin Baines. Their trip to Pakistan took in Islamabad, Mirpur, Chakswari and Kolti. In Bradford there are 65,650 people of Pakistani origin - the majority originate from the Mirpur district.

PC Singh said: "It puzzles me why West Yorkshire police felt it necessary to send a delegation of officers to Pakistan to learn about different cultures when they could have approached the 70,000 Muslims in Bradford."

Inspector Baines, who organised the delegation, today refuted the claims.

"PC Singh was well informed about what we were doing," he said. "The people who went on the delegation were taken to do a specific job and it wasn't a question of people going because of other criteria.

"The people who made the trip did so with a purpose and objective."

He added there had been widespread support from the community, both about the exchange visit and the officers chosen to take part.

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