The Malawi Police Service (MPS) has urged Malawians should not be scared by the new arrangement that traffic police officers will now be carrying firearms when discharging their duties.

On Wednesday Malawians were awash with a communiqué instructing traffic police officers to make sure that they are accompanied by armed police officers when discharging duties on the road.

The order follows report of assault directed at traffic police officers with the recent incident being the one that happened at Nandoz in Blantyre where passengers assaulted traffic police officers who wanted to impound a minibus.

The order has attracted mixed reactions with many claiming the order will lead in unnecessary deaths of offenders.

But reacting to the development Deputy National Police Spokesperson Harry Namwaza has quashed the fears.

“This is not something the civilians should misinterpret as a plan against them, It is not something new for police officers to carry rifles,” said Namwaza.