Countries like Australia, the United Kingdom, the United States, France and China are supporting the Agency with regard to training of its staff which would help enhance its forensic capacity to combat crimes, a senior NSFA official said. Talking to APP on Friday, the official said the agency which has so far conducted more than 1060 Deoxyribo Nucleic Acid(DNA) tests at its lab, is also in the process of launching some other forensic services from March or April for detection and identification of illicit drugs, accelerants used in arson cases, fire arms, explosives and gunshot residue and forged documents to enhance rule of law through use of modern scientific tools. He said the agency is supporting law enforcement agencies in conducting the biological tests and striving to connect crime scene and judicial system through development of delivery of impartial expert scientific opinion evidence. The official said the Australian government has provided Genetic Analyzer Machine (GAM) worth 0.25 million dollars to the NFSA which has helped enhanced forensic capacity. Moreover, specialized training is also being provided to officers of Agency as part of a forensic biology and DNA course in Australia. Strategies have been developed to enhance forensic capacity of Pakistani agencies through a series of training courses for Pakistani forensic scientists to be held in Australia, commencing this month and continuing until 2013, he said. Two or three officials will be sent to Australia for training in different forensic fields, he added. Giving details, the official said the training in explosive and bomb scene awareness would improve an introduction to the theory of explosives and the construction of Improvised Explosive Devices (IEDs) and the forensic examination of relevant post blast scenes, evidence recovery and the use of forensic findings for intelligence purposes. He said training in evidence recognition and recovery would prepare participants in the handling, recording and recovery of potential evidence to reduce the possibility of contamination, maximize evidence recovery and introduce them to the concept of evidence triage as part of active case management. The introduction to firearms examination course would help in identification of firearms and the initial forensic examination using basic equipment. The training will also introduce ballistic concepts. The other course is lab management for specialist & technical experts which would ensure training in forensic examination of suspect fraudulent documents and currency. Training will be provided in field first responder technology and more advanced laboratory based techniques. The forensic biology or DNA course would focus on techniques to ensure the best quality DNA is available for analysis (extraction and clean up procedures) and subsequent analysis focusing on latest genetic analyzer technology. Training will include guidance developing method validation and verification. The purpose of fingerprint recovery and enhancement course is to adapt and enhance fingerprint skills. Various optical, physical and chemical techniques for development and enhancement of finger marks would be discussed during the training. The official said two analysts would proceed to the United Kingdom for DNA training on January 15. Two NFSA officials have already got training in question document from France and are working here successfully. He said the NFSA is in process of purchasing modern equipment for new services worth Rs. 20 million.