Out in the green fields, a group of policemen takes shelter from the midday heat under a mulberry tree. Others are scattered across the terrain with its dry water channels, graveyards and settlements.

This afternoon, DSP Abidur Rehman misses his prayers for a last-minute inspection of the policemen posted across the Sulaimankhel area in Peshawar’s precincts. Any minute now, the corps commander, Peshawar, is to fly over, tracing the landing flight path at Peshawar’s Bacha Khan International Airport to inspect if it is properly guarded by the policemen.

Rehman is one of six DSPs tasked with surveying settlements falling within the jurisdiction of three police stations in the ‘funnel zone’ — areas in the line of the take-off and landing site — of the airport. The area is spread over Badaber — where Rehman’s station is located — Sarband and Mathani that border the frontier regions of Peshawar and Kohat, and onwards the tribal areas of Khyber Agency and Darra Adamkhel.

Long before the ‘war on terror’, two places near Peshawar emitted a sense of danger. Bara in Fata’s Khyber Agency and Darra Adamkhel in Pata were the figurative wolves at Peshawar’s door.

That sense of peril has only deepened since the borderlands caught fire — not just because they have become militant redoubts but also because militants sneak in easily to challenge the state’s writ in mainstream KP, including Peshawar. Between Peshawar and the tribal areas including the frontier regions are villages where police stations and posts have been plagued by suicide attacks by militants active in Khyber Agency and Darra Adamkhel.

Planes positioning themselves to land at Peshawar airport lose altitude over Badaber — home to a secret American base at the height of the Cold War. The ground below with its thick foliage provides the perfect cover for militants creeping in from the neighbouring Khyber Agency. Every police post here has sustained attacks.

Peshawar police are overburdened

Through the broken pebble-strewn paths with ditches left by IEDs, the police patrol arrives at the village in Sulaimankhel where militants fired at the PIA airliner coming in from Riyadh on June 24.

“The villagers heard firing and saw tracers rising from the fields there, aimed at the aircraft above,” Rehman points to a spot in the village hidden by trees. “They saw eight people, covered by others in the fields across the road.”

Arrests reveal that militants belonging to the Shahid group, a TTP affiliate active in Bara, fired at the plane. Media reports also speak of the arrest of a militant commander Waliullah from Darra Adamkhel, associated with the Shahid group. Sulaimankhel, like other villages close to Bara and Darra, is home to the Afridi tribes. Military operations in Fata have also led people from the Khyber and Mohmand agencies to move here. The villagers are still in thrall to the militants either out of fear or tribal bonds. The poor presence of law enforcers hasn’t helped.

Peshawar and its outskirts are separated from the frontier regions and tribal areas by the porous Frontier Road, with security posts manned by police, army, Frontier Corps and Frontier Constabulary. Across the road, in the tribal areas, are Taliban posts or markaz. The security posts at this side are at a distance from each other, leaving unguarded spaces.

A police officer records data of people living on the outskirts of Peshawar

The police, army and provincial administration are now seeking to protect this perilous territory against militant incursions to avoid a recurrence of the June 24 incident. The firing on flight PK756, carrying 196 people, killed a passenger and injured others.

The patrol arrives at a police post at Shahabkhel village where Rehman is updated on a survey the KP police is carrying out in neighbourhoods adjacent to Khyber Agency.

The survey will geotag houses and buildings on a Google map along with details of the occupants, their ID, fingerprints, pictures and tribe. Unhappy with the progress so far, he wants the survey team to be given motorcycles and armed guards to finish the task in time.

The authorities are looking into training and arming villagers to protect their lands against militant incursions while also securing the airways above. New construction in the funnel areas has been banned and police have orders to show zero tolerance for firing in the air, festive or not.

Given the terrain that allows militants to come in through the fields, ditches and channels in small numbers, security officials believe there is a need for fencing the Frontier Road, all the way from Shahkas in Khyber Agency to Kohat Road, leaving two guarded openings for people to cross through.

As things stand, the police are outnumbered by militants at their posts across the road. Where the areas adjacent to tribal areas are large, police stations are few. The police on the outskirts also need equipment to coordinate with airport security and the army.

“The airport funnel zone needs its own police force, trained and equipped,” says a police official. “We have drawn police members from the stations in the areas that have a high incidence of crime and terrorism to man the funnel zone for 24 hours. That leaves the population within the jurisdiction of these stations vulnerable.”

Published in Dawn, July 15th, 2014