PESHAWAR: The Khyber Pakhtunkhwa police have established the country’s first ever unmanned aerial vehicle (UAV) division.

Officials said since the start of 2025, the use of UAVs by militants in the southern districts of the province gave militants an edge over the police.

They, however, said the police deployed anti-drone guns in multiple districts before installing two anti-drone systems in Peshawar and the restive Bannu district to thwart quadcopter attacks.

According to the data collected from several sources, 320 quadcopter attacks took place in Bannu district in 2025, followed by 34 in North and South Waziristan districts and 21 in Bajaur.

Officials point out strategic shift in counter-terrorism efforts

Senior police official told Dawn that the figure might be higher as verified data wasn’t available.

They said that under the UAV division, the KP police had established ground control stations (GCS) across the province, a transition into aerial surveillance, which marked a strategic shift in how the force handles security challenges and counter-terrorism efforts.

“It has many features but the most important one is that it helps obtain data from the captured enemy drone and it identifies, rather pinpoints the location where the drone is flown from,” Deputy Inspector General of Police (Telecommunication) Rai Ijaz told Dawn.

Mr Ijaz said that in order to ensure seamless integration, the UAV Division had been instructed to maintain close coordination with other national security agencies for synchronised aerial surveillance.

“The Notice to Airmem (Notam) is a must as not an ordinary person can even touch the system,” he said.

The official said the division would also help assist the anti-drone system besides regulating drone flights in coordination with other law-enforcement agencies.

He said that the division was established on standing order from KP police chief Zulfiqar Hameed but it would fall within the Safe City Project once the Safe City Act was passed by the provincial government.

Mr Ijaz said KP had become the first province to have established the division adding that the drone range was being widened to 10 kilometres and that it was already in place in Peshawar and Lakki Marwat districts.

He also said that other provinces had also sought assistance in developing the divisions and that other provinces were being assisted.

The official said that interviews were being conducted to appoint the first director of the division.

He said that under the Safe City Project, the department planned to recruit professional ‘Pilots-in-Command’ to oversee and execute high stakes, intelligence-based operations.

Senior officials said that the technology would help police not only identify the militants’ location by extracting data from their drones to target them.

They said that “ground control systems” were being established in every district. The officials said other provinces had expressed interest in adopting similar drone technologies.

They said the provincial police had formally offered full technical assistance to other provincial law-enforcement forces to strengthen security infrastructure.

A statement issued here read that on the special directives of the provincial police chief, both the counter-terrorism department of police and district police had been equipped with modern drone and anti-drone technology.

It added that the department had initiated forensic testing of drones recovered from terrorists to trace militant networks and origin points.

“A dedicated Innovation Centre is being established in Nowshera where the centre will serve as a hub for research and development, ensuring the force stays updated with global advancements in drone technology,” it said.

The statement also read that until new recruitments were finalised, current police personnel were undergoing advanced technical training at the School of Tactics to manage UAV operations.

Published in Dawn, March 7th, 2026