PESHAWAR: The government should devise a line of action about the presence and operations of police in the frontier regions and adjacent tribal areas, said Inspector General of Police Nasir Khan Durrani here on Tuesday.

Addressing a press conference at Malak Saad Shaheed Police Lines, he painted a bleak picture of the situation in most of the districts, particularly central and southern districts. Those districts were facing threats owing to presence of militants while situation was improving in Malakand region, he added.“There should be a proper mechanism to regulate movement of people from Fata to Khyber Pakhtunkhwa,” Mr Durrani said. He added that he couldn’t say anything about the involvement of foreigners in terrorism, however, Afghans having Pakistani identity cards were involved in many acts of terrorism.

The police chief termed presence of Afghan nationals having Pakistani identity cards a constant threat to the country. Getting Pakistani identity cards by Afghans was dangerous as it would pose many security threats, he added.

To a question regarding increase in extortion and kidnapping for ransom incidents, the IGP said that both the crimes couldn’t be separated from terrorism. He said that militants as well as criminals pretending to be militants were involved in extortion and kidnapping for ransom.

He said that police department was short of manpower as only 2,500 policemen were deputed in Peshawar district. He added that the department had requested to the government time and again to allow it to recruit more police officials. Owing to shortage of manpower, he said, officials were compelled to perform 12 hours duty on daily basis.

The IGP said that Khyber Pakhtunkhwa was also short of police officers. He said that government should declare Khyber Pakhtunkhwa a hard area and give more incentives to the officers performing duty in the militancy-hit province.

Mr Durrani said that at least 10 militants groups were active in in the province. Those groups included Tehreek-i-Taliban Pakistan, Tehreek-i-Taliban Mohmand, Tehreek-i-Tliban Swat, Tariq Geedar group, Jangrez group, Gandapur group, Faiq group, Qari Aqeel group, Lashkar-i-Islam and Emarat-i-Islamia, he added.

“Our survival is linked with winning this war. We have to fight this war collectively,” the IGP said. He said that around 50 per cent police stations were established in rented buildings.

“During my visit to Kohistan, I observed that many police stations were established in mud houses,” Mr Durrani said. He added that he directed the quarters concerned to arrange containers for such police officials as ‘stop gap arrangements’.

The IGP said that 79 police personnel had been killed during the last six months in different incidents of terrorism. Appreciating police for their sacrifices in war against terrorism, he said that 57 attacks were repulsed or foiled.

Mr Durrani said that the courageous personnel of bomb disposal squad successfully defused 282 improvised explosive devices during the last six months.

“Since October 2013, police has traced 129 cases of terrorism,” the IGP said, adding 144 terrorists were arrested and 25 were killed in encounters with police.