PESHAWAR: The Khyber Pakhtunkhwa police have decided to impart special training to their personnel to check the growing cases of terrorism, targeted attacks, extortion and kidnapping for ransom.

This was disclosed by provincial Inspector General of Police Nasir Khan Durrani during the ‘Meet the Press’ programme of the Khyber Union of Journalists at the Peshawar Press Club on Thursday.

Capital city police officer Ijaz Ahmad Khan and other senior police officers were also in attendance.

IGP seeks issuance of travel advisory to foreigners

Appreciating the role of police in the fight against terrorism, the police chief said being members of a peacekeeping force, policemen bravely fought hardened criminals and terrorists carrying sophisticated weapons and even hugged suicide bombers to save the people’s life.

He, however, said before sending them into the field against terrorists, policemen needed proper training, latest arms ammunitions and quality infrastructure at least to get cover while facing the bombers, especially at night.

“Around 1,000 of our police personnel, including high-ranking officers, have laid down lives during the war on terrorism over several years,” he said, adding that despite 60 percent shortage of officers from grade 18 to 21, the existing staff was doing well to overcome problems.

Nasir Khan suggested the province be provided with resources like Balochistan for being war-affected to meet the challenges in a befitting manner.

He said there was an acute shortage of resources and that was why the Elite Force hadn’t been provided with uniform for four years.

The IGP said armored personnel carriers were direly needed for patrolling mainly in the suburban areas to stop sabotage attempts, especially due to improvised explosive devices.

About the focus on improvement of investigation process, he said one school of investigation had been opened at Hayatabad and another would be made functional till end of the current month.

Nasir Khan said provincial police had been told to ensue conviction of terrorists through the courts as only arrest of such outlaws was not enough.

About the recovery of a Chinese national, who had been kidnapped from Dera Ismail Khan, he said police had contacted the federal government and other relevant quarters for the purpose.

He, however, said the government should issue travel advisory to foreigners so that there would avoid walking, cycling and traveling without prior permission from the competent authorities.

Regarding security of prisons in the province, the IGP said 600 policemen had been on duty in the prisons which was additional burden on the police.

He said there should be separate special security force for the safety of prisons to work on sustainable basis.

For the capacity building of police, Nasir Khan said training schools had been planned at levels of different divisions.

“Initially, two such institutions one in Malakand and the other in Swabi have been opened,” he said.

Nasir Khan said in order to overcome the incidents of vehicle theft, vehicles verification system had been introduced in the province and therefore, it had become very easy for police to get details about stolen vehicles within minutes.

“The system is linked to servers of the excise department,” he said.

The IGP said work on criminal record of different districts had been initiated and some 67,600 FIRs had been computerised which had around 0.1 million entries.

He said it was a gigantic job but some 400 people did it in three shifts during a short time of six months in the province.

Nasir Khan called for legislation on checking of tenants in residential localities, hotels and guesthouses to check movement of terrorists.

He said there was no data about Afghan refugees living in the province and therefore, police faced difficulties.

The IGP said two dispute resolution councils had been formed in Peshawar, while the facility would be extended to other districts to resolve minor disputes out of courts for the benefit of the people.

He said the police had focused attention on checking cases of extortion, kidnapping for ransom and target attacks and that was why the menace had been controlled to the great extent.

Nasir Khan urged the media to educate people on their security, registration of cases in case of untoward incident and keeping close liaison with local police for joint action against outlaws.

Published in Dawn, June 13th, 2014