QUETTA: Balochistan police have set up a control room and installed 32 CCTV cameras at different points to monitor activities in the main areas of Quetta city.

Addressing a press conference here on Tuesday, Capital City Police Officer Abdul Razaq Cheema said the cameras had been installed by police from its own resources. He said the move would help police keep a vigilant eye on activities of terrorists and criminals to a great extent.

“We need at least 600 CCTV cameras to monitor the entire Quetta city and its outskirts,” the CCPO said.

He said for the time being a small control room and a monitoring centre had been set up in the CCPO office.

“We need at least around 2,000 square yards land to set up a big control room and monitoring centre and at least 600 CCTV cameras to keep the entire provincial capital under the watch,” Mr Cheema said.

The CCPO said that the interior minister had approved Rs500 million to implement the plan to install more cameras in the provincial capital and its outskirts. He said the funds would be spent on purchasing walkthrough gates, vehicle scanners and other required security equipment and this would definitely help police in curbing acts of terror and other criminal activities across the city and its outskirts.

He said that police were doing their best to provide security to all people in their available resources, adding that police patrolling vehicles would be made bullet-proof by erecting steel-sheets.

Mr Cheema said the government was providing best professional training to police personnel and so far 400 policemen had been trained in the Pakistan Army's training centres under the supervision of army commandos.

“We will soon send another batch of around 600 policemen for special training in the army centres,” he said, adding that the confidence and performance of the policemen having been trained by the Pakistan Army was wonderful.

“The training programme was started to enable the police force to combat ongoing acts of terrorism the province has been witnessing for a long time,” he said.

He said that in order to keep a watchful eye on criminal elements, community committees representing political workers, newly-elected councillors, social workers and notables had been formed in Quetta.

The CCPO stressed that there was no political pressure on the police department and lauded efforts of the government for providing all possible help to the police department.

SSP Operation Quetta Jaffar Khan and SSP Awais also attended the press conference.