LAHORE: Mushtaq Sukhera, who has been summoned to head Punjab police, will be expected to demonstrate his counter-extremism expertise immediately after assuming charge of his office on Monday, starting by appointing a team of like-minded officers to prepare the province to combat the threat of a backlash from terrorists in the wake of the military operation launched in North Waziristan.

Sources in the Punjab government and police cited Mr Sukhera’s vast experience in the field as the reason for his selection for the job that is likely to focus on countering terrorism.

“The extent of the threat of terrorism can be gauged from the fact that the army has taken control of the Islamabad airport and Adiala Jail this morning. And the new IGP is expected to quickly start going after terrorists for which he has been selected,” a police official said on Sunday.

The sources said the new provincial police chief was likely to make a policy statement on Monday and announce his team of officials for all over the province to take measures to lower the unbridled crime rate and combat the major threat of terrorism.

They said the Punjab government was not satisfied with the performance of outgoing inspector general Khan Baig who also had said three days ago that terrorism was the biggest threat the province was facing.

The sources said that Interior Minister Chaudhry Nisar Ali wanted Mr Sukhera to head the Federal Investigation Agency but the government had sent him to Punjab at the request of Chief Minister Shahbaz Sharif in view of the grave threat of terrorism and the need to build a civilian law-enforcement set-up worthy of meeting the challenge.

They said Mr Sukhera was also expected to make it clear in his first communication to the Punjab police officers that he wanted them to stop misusing their power and take up the task of protecting the province from terrorists and criminals.

He has served in various capacities in Punjab, mainly dealing with terrorism.

Mr Sukhera served as deputy inspector general of the Criminal Investigation De­part­ment in 2007 and was the Lahore DIG investigation in 2008 when the Sri Lankan cricket team was attacked by terrorists.

In 2009 he was appointed regional police officer of Bahawalpur where he led a crackdown on terrorists. He was made Rawalpindi DIG Investigation in 2010 but was sent back to Bahawalpur as RPO after three months.

Published in Dawn, June 16th, 2014