No more rapes, assaults and fights. From now on, National Service (NS) programmes will be incident-free.

This assurance came from the National Service Training Department Director-General Abdul Halim Abdul Hamid today.

According to Bernama , he said new measures which included isolating hot-tempered trainees and zero body contact between male and female would be put in place to prevent untoward incidents.

A 'room leader' would be appointed to monitor the safety and security of trainees in their respective dormitories. These leaders would be tasked to inform the trainers of any quarrels or small fights among trainees.

Isolation for fight-prone trainees

Abdul Halim said trainees who are prone to fighting will be isolated until they are willing to adhere to the rules and regulations of the national service.

"Female trainees will not be grouped together with the male trainees during physical training sessions. We also guarantee that female trainees will be safe with the male trainers," he added.

Abdul Halim said suggestion boxes would be provided for the trainees to channel their grievances and dissatisfaction so that weaknesses in the training camp or the national service could be rectified quickly and fights averted.

On the compulsory firearms training , he said the use of the M-16 assault rifle was aimed at building confidence, patriotism and courage.

Yesterday, Deputy Defence Minister Zainal Abidin Zin said that from June 27 all NS trainees must participate in shooting practice using M-16 rifles.

The NS training has seen its fair share of glitches, critcism and tragedies, including deaths of trainees.

In a recent incident, a trainee was killed in a fight with another trainee.