In a bid to maintain law and order and combat the growing trends of violence, terrorism and militancy, the Khyber Pakhtunkhwa Police are working on setting up a Directorate of Counter Terrorism and Intelligence (DCTI) as well as a special force for carrying out prompt action wherever needed, be it the settled areas or the Tribal Areas.
Talking to Pakistan Today, Khyber Pakhtunkhwa Inspector General of Police Ihsan Ghani said intelligence forces played a key role in combating criminal and terrorist elements. “But unfortunately in the last several years, intelligence gathering bodies have been neglected, thus causing hardships in combating crime,” Ghani said.
He recalled that the British rulers, while introducing the policing system, had also set up intelligence wings at the police station level, which was also part of the district security branch.
Ghani said against the 2,000 police officials, the number of intelligence agencies’ personnel was very limited.
“On such grounds, Chief Minister Pervaiz Khattak agreed to strengthen the intelligence force, which will help the government in combating not only militancy and terrorism but also counter day-to-day crime.”
To a question, the IGP said the new intelligence body, DCTI, was being established after restructuring the existing bodies such as the special branch and Directorate of Counter Terrorism.
“The district security branch will be merged in the new body while some of the special branch police functions and responsibilities could also be transferred to it.”
This new DCTI will be directly answerable to the IGP.
Similarly, the Khyber Pakhtunkhwa Police IGP said they were focusing on revival of the existing resources within different wings of the police force. “In this respect, efforts are underway for revival of the Criminal Investigation Department (CID). This process will be soon completed,” he said, adding that the Khyber Pakhtunkhwa Police were aware of their responsibilities at this crucial stage.
Referring to the problems on the boundaries between settled districts of the province and the Tribal Areas, Ghani said “basically it was the responsibility of the Frontier Constabulary but unfortunately over the years, its contingents have been assigned other tasks such as guarding embassies, government complexes and offices throughout the country”, adding, however that now efforts were being made for the return of the FC contingents, which might be helpful in bringing the border regions under control.
He said a special force was also being set up for taking prompt and timely action wherever needed.
