PESHAWAR: The Telecommunication and Transport Branch of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa police has successfully carried out the steel plating of 256 vehicles in the province to mitigate the threats posed by attacks with improvised explosive devices on police vehicles.

In view of the increasing number of the IED attacks and firing incidents on police patrol vehicles, the Khyber Pakhtunkhwa police had decided to instal similar locally-developed IED-resistant armour protection on policepersonnel transport pickups. According to police, following the directives of IGP Nasir Khan Durrani an agreement was signed with the Pakistan Army for this purpose and so far mild steel plating of 256 police vehicles had been carried out under the contract.

It was stated that these vehicles included 204 single cabin and 52 double-cabin pickups. District- and unit-wise details of the vehicles are; Peshawar 53, Charsadda 18, Nowshera 19, Mardan 39, Swabi 18, Kohat 15, Hangu eight, Tank 11, Lakki Marwat 10, Bannu 16, DI Khan 29, Swat four, Buner two, Lower Dir three, Upper Dir two, Shangla two, Elite Force two and telecommunication two.

A police official of the rural circle pleading anonymity told Dawn that the modified vehicles were not safe enough to replace the armored personnel carriers (APCs), but it was compulsion of the police to use it at least to counter the attacks to some extent.

“There are very few APCs with Peshawar police and they too were always found out of order because ordinary mechanics cannot repair them,” the official revealed and added that in case of a major fault the police had to call mechanics from Rawalpindi and Islamabad for the purpose. The modified police vans, he said, might help resist blasts of low intensity explosive devices, but powerful bombs could damage them easily.

Published in Dawn, August 29th, 2014