PESHAWAR: Providing security to airplanes in Peshawar has become another challenge for the police department, which is already struggling to control acts of terrorism, extortion and kidnapping for ransom.

The new duty was assigned to police after an Airbus, coming from Riyadh to Peshawar, was attacked when it was landing at the airport five days ago. A woman passenger was killed and a steward was injured in the attack.

In the prevailing situation, police seem unable to control the deteriorating law and order situation due to many reasons. No doubt, police enjoy support of other law enforcement agencies including Frontier Constabulary (FC) but even then anti-state and anti-social elements seem quite active.

Peshawar, the capital of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, is surrounded by tribal regions. The ratio of terrorism incidents during the past few years is high in Peshawar as compared to any other district of the province.

It is difficult for the department to control the new type of crime with its limited resources: sources

The killing of two senior traffic police officials in the months of May and June shows that police are still on the hit list of militants.

Police are performing several jobs including VIP duty and checking of Afghan refugees and internally displaced persons.

Sources say that it is difficult for police department to control the new type of crime, firing on airlines, with its limited resources. However, police have accepted the challenge and taken some decisions in this regard, they add.

Police have started registration of people, residing in the localities close to tribal regions. The villagers will also have to keep local police informed about their guests, staying with them for night, so that they don’t face embarrassment during raids.

A police spokesman said that they would also intervene in case of construction of high-rise buildings in the suburban localities. “People will have to get permission from local police for raising any structure close to the tribal areas and airport to minimise the possible sabotage threats,” he added.

However, another senior police officer, when approached by this correspondent for comments, said that registration of people was not an easy job because majority of them were not permanent residents. They used to change locations frequently, he added.

“Presence of Afghan refugees is main headache for the police as they are in the habit to changing residences with short intervals and without leaving any proof behind regarding their whereabouts,” the official said.

He said that the government on request of police had approved two laws — Khyber Pakhtunkhwa Hotel Restriction (security) Ordinance 2014 and Khyber Pakhtunkhwa Rent Restriction (security) Ordinance 2014 — to ensure checking of suspected persons but those laws were yet to be fully implemented.

The official said that the new generation of Afghan refugees had very close resemblance with local people in every respect and they could not be recognised due to their dialect and way of dealing. They had also managed to get the Pakistani national identity cards, he added.

The official said that Afghan refugees not buy land so they had purchased costly land and other properties in the names of other people. They constructed buildings there and enjoyed life like local people, he added.The official said that Mashokhel, Sulemankhel and Shahabkhel were located close to the tribal regions and movement of suspected persons was very easy there.

He said that Peshtakhara, Sarband, Bara Gate, Swati Phattak and Arbab Landi were situated in the limits of City and Cantonment circles of police but despite that those areas were infested with suspects and outlaws. The SHOs concerned, he claimed, had full knowledge about the people residing in rented buildings but no action was taken against them.

The official said that government should establish camps for Afghan refugees and restrict them to those camps. Similarly, he said, there should be a system to monitor the movement of IDPs so that terrorists could not take advantage of the situation.

The work on implementation of the Khyber Pakhtunkhwa Hotel Restriction (security) Ordinance 2014 and Khyber Pakhtunkhwa Rent Restriction (security) Ordinance 2014, the official said, was very slow. There was need to expedite the process in the wake of attack on PIA flight otherwise police would be unable to check movement of outlaws, he added.

Published in Dawn, June 30th, 2014