PESHAWAR, April 20: The presence of over half-a-million Afghan refugees in the provincial capital is one of the major factors in increasing crime incidents in the city, a senior police official said.

Speaking at the ‘Guest Hour’ programme organized by the Peshawar Press Club here on Sunday, the chief of the Peshawar police, DIG Tanveerul Haq Sipra, said that the law and order in Peshawar deteriorated owing to the introduction of arms and drug culture during the Afghan crisis.

The Afghan outlaws have more sophisticated weapons than the law enforcement agencies and that makes it difficult to arrest them, he added.

A survey conducted by the police reveals that Afghans are involved directly or indirectly in more than 75 per cent crimes committed in the city and the police faces difficulties in locating them as most of the time they shift from one place to another to continue their activities, Mr Sipra said.

Most of the Afghan, who are wanted by the police, sometime even escape to their country, Mr Sipra said.

Another major reason in failure to curb the crime was the tribal belt near the city, as in most of the incidents the outlaws after committing crime slip to the tribal regions, he maintained.

There are so many unfrequented routes leading to the tribal areas and it is quite difficult for the police force to man all these routes, he said.

Mr Sipra said that the police cannot control the crime, unless the policemen are trained according to the international standards.

And it is equally important to set up more police stations while keeping in view the population of the area, he said and added that at least four or five police stations should be established in Faqirabad and Gulbahar areas.

“During the British rule, there was one policeman for 450 citizens, but now there is only one constable for every 1,000 citizens of the city,” he said.

“The population of Peshawar is 4.4 million and Afghans living in and around the city refugee camps are about one million, so it is very difficult to control the crime with the police force of 4,700,” the CCP chief said.

He said that after the establishment of preventive and investigation departments in police, the burden on the law enforcement department had been increased manifold. “We need 150 per cent increase in the force to maintain the law and order in the city properly,” he added.

Mr Sipra said that when he took over the charge about four months ago, he ordered all the SHOs to register FIRs. And he had suspended many officials on the same charges.—Bureau