A POLICE operator should be retrained after a watchdog slammed her handling of a desperate phone call from murder victim Mohammed Shafiq, a councillor has said.

Lancashire police bosses have admitted that the call handler, who has not been named, was not disciplined following a conversation with Mr Shafiq just hours before he was murdered in a Burnley park.

Mr Shafiq contacted the non-emergency police line on March 4 after being told his son, Umar, 18, was being threatened by four men.

However, the Independent Police Complaints Commission (IPCC) condemned the service offered to him, saying the operator should have sent officers to deal with the situation.

Following the damning report, a senior Pendle councillor said Mr Shafiq, of York Street, Nelson, had been failed.

And Coun Mohammed Iqbal, leader of the borough’s Labour group, added: “I think this woman should have been offered some training by Lancashire police to address some shortfalls that occurred in the phone call.

“There should be six-monthly reviews of staff at the very least.

“I am happy with my experiences with the police but all it takes is one phone call, like Mr Shafiq’s, and the consequences can be fatal.”

During the seven-and-a-half minute call, Mr Shafiq is heard telling the female operator that a group of men was following his son.

At the end of the conversation, he said he would go to the park himself and was told by the woman to distance himself from the incident.

But just half an hour later, Mr Shafiq lay dead after being stabbed and struck with a metal bar in Thompson Park.

IPCC investigators concluded that the operator “failed to recognise the seriousness of the situation” and missed key information as she was speaking to Mr Shafiq.

Det Chief Supt Clive Tattum, head of Lancashire police’s professional standards department, said: “We will be considering the appropriate course of action with regards to the individual member of staff and the public should be reassured that we have looked into this to prevent this occurring in the future.”

However, a police spokeswoman said yesterday ((MON)) that the operator had not been suspended or moved to a different job following the call. They refused to say whether the woman had been retrained and said they were still considering the findings of the report.

Mohammad Bilal Bhatti, 21, of Holcombe Drive, Burnley, pleaded guilty to Mr Shafiq’s murder on the fifth day of his trial while Shazad Akhtar, 17, of Scott Park Road, Burnley, admitted manslaughter. Omar Khalid, 19, of Fairfield Drive, and Mohammed Shahdab Akhtar, 19, of Scott Park Road, all Burnley, pleaded guilty to violent disorder.