PESHAWAR, July 31: The Peshawar City District police are not involved in any sort of direct witch-hunt against the Al Qaeda fugitives, instead it provides manpower to sister organisations if they ask for it.

Speaking at the “Guest Hour” programme of the Peshawar Press Club here on Wednesday, City District Police chief Khursheed Alam said the joint investigation teams were responsible for such operations. “We are not directly involved in this issue, but we do provide support if it is required by the responsible people,” the DIG added.

Explaining the task and responsibility of his force, he said after the reforms, the police had been put on the three-tier system: investigation, operation and security. All the 21 police stations of the city had their own separate people, who were independent of operation and security, and dealt with the investigation, he added.

Mr Alam read out the statistics of the crimes committed over the last six months, which showed a decrease in the heinous crimes like murder, car-snatching, kidnapping, theft and burglary, and an increase in petty crimes.

He said the police had lodged more than 1,000 FIRs this year.

He denied that the police were against lodging of an FIR, but said the people whose relatives were kidnapped usually considered it safe not to get an FIR registered. They wanted to secure the release of their relatives through others means, he added.

He said Peshawar, one-fourth the size of New York in terms of population, had a police strength of 4,500 personnel, while New York maintained a modern police force of 52,000 men. Despite this huge difference in force strength, the New York police registered 24,000 cases of robbery every year, he added.

He said London experienced more robbery cases (54,000) than New York, but in Peshawar an underpaid police force fared far better than both its counterparts in New York and London.

The DIG admitted that the police force were a carry-over of the British Raj, which had been drafted in as a political instrument to enslave and suppress their Indian subjects. “To some extent, we are still clinging to the old Raj mentality. We have to come out of this inhuman mind-set,” he added.

He said some funds were in the pipeline for the improvement of the force. The strength was insufficient to cater for the needs of an ever-extending city like Peshawar.

He said a major portion of the force had been detailed for the security of financial institutions, diplomatic and UN missions in the city. A heavy contingent had been looking after the security of the foreign delegates dealing with the Afghan refugees, he added.

The law and order, he said, was very satisfactory as none of the businessmen, shopkeepers and residents had ever lodged any complaint during processions about the damage of their property in the city.

To a question, he said exchange of gifts could not be termed corruption. “It is a tradition of our hospitality to invite friends on dinners and attend their gatherings,” he added.

He promised that the Frontier Post workers, wrongly charged and implicated by the police, would be provided with relief.