PESHAWAR: In order to step up action against hardcore criminals and militants, the Khyber Pakhtunkhwa police have established three zones of the Counter Terrorism Department (CTD) with an immediate effect to cover almost all areas of the province.

The CTD was earlier known as the directorate of counter terrorism (DCT), which would only gather intelligence information and pass it to the districts and other units of police force for further action.

However, after assuming charge of his office, Khyber Pakhtunkhwa Inspector General of Police Nasir Khan Durrani established CTD in Oct 2013 to bring harmony in the police action against the hardcore criminals.

Blame game erupted among different concerned units when the intelligence could not materialise which adversely affected the performance of the whole force. The IGP deemed it fit to make it a fully fledged institution with the mandate to gather intelligence, launch operation as well as conduct investigations against the criminals.

Beside this different analysis wings have also been established in it for research and intelligence purposes. Taking action and tightening noose around kidnappers, militants, extortionists and target killers fall in the domain of CTD.

According to a police department notification issued here on Sunday, the decision of establishment of three zones was taken to harness the activities of CTD and bring conformity in its action against outlaws in the province.

Each zone will be supervised by an officer of the rank of SSP/SP. The zone-1, to be called northern zone, will consist of all districts of Hazara and Malakand regions, while central zone (zone-II) will include the Peshawar and all districts of Mardan region. All districts of Kohat, Bannu and DI Khan regions will be part of the Southern Zone i.e zone-III.

It was stated that now coordinated efforts would be made against the militants, kidnappers, extortionists and target killers hiding in the far-off areas of the province.

The statement added that the CTD personnel arrested 93 alleged hardcore criminals, which included 49 terrorists, eight kidnappers, 29 extortionists and seven target killers in operations conducted during the last fortnight in different parts of the province.

It said that the terrorists also included a commander of an outlawed outfit involved in different bomb blast attacks. The CTD also recovered a big cache of arms and ammunition from the arrested outlaws.

Published in Dawn March 9th , 2015

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