PESHAWAR, Jan 15: The well-coordinated attacks by militants on a police post in Peshawar suburbs and District Police Office in Dera Ismail Khan have raised questions about strategy and preparedness of law enforcers in dealing with such situations.

However, a former police officer told Dawn that he did not see it as a failure of police.

He pointed out some areas where police could tackle such attacks in the prevailing circumstances.

Better intelligence gathering and sharing could help thwart militant attacks on police, the former police officer said.

Calling the current situation a complex one, he said that one factor behind such attacks was lack of prior information with police.

'Such attacks could be thwarted by strengthening the intelligence network of police,' he said, adding that law enforcers would be at risk unless intelligence network of police was strengthened.

Militants attacked a checkpost, jointly manned by police and Frontier Constabulary, on Jan 13 atSarband area of Peshawar bordering volatile Bara tehsil of Khyber Agency. Three security personnel were killed in the attack.

On Jan 15, another attack on the compound housing DPO office in Dera Ismail Khan left two policemen and two civilians dead.

'If there were prior information, police could have been alerted to fight back in time,' the former police officer said.

Police have a 'special branch' for gathering information but according to the former officer those policemen who are good-for-nothing at a police station are sent to work at this branch and they do nothing there too.

'The staff at the special branch needs to be trained as intelligence gathering professionals,' he said.

However, 'special branch' has no jurisdiction in the tribal areas where supposedly most of such terrorist attacks are planned.

'There should be better coordination between the intelligence networks in settled and tribal areas,' the former officer said.

Sometimes ago, opposition leader in provincial as-sembly, Akram Khan Durrani, who hails from violence-affected Bannu district bordering tribal area, also proposed in the house to strengthen 'special branch' for gathering intelligence about militants and their plans.

He had also demanded that 'special branch' should be equipped with the modern equipment for intelligence gathering.

Brig (retired) Mehmood Shah, former secretary security Fata, said that police to some extent had shown weakness as they were not prepared despite the prevailing security situation.

'I think police had prior information about such a threat in Dera Ismail Khan but they were not prepared for it,' he said.

He was of the view that police should have increased their intelligence gathering in the towns bordering the tribal areas.

'Coordination among intelligence agencies and collection of intelligence and forwarding it in time to the law enforcement agency concerned is important in the current situation,' Mr Shah said.