PESHAWAR: Khyber Pakhtunkhwa Chief Minister Ali Amin Gandapur on Sunday announced a slew of measures to strengthen the police’s Counter-Terrorism Department to fight off surging incidents of terrorism in the province.

“We are fighting an enemy that is better equipped and we have to level up at least to be able to overcome one of the biggest challenges of our lives,” Mr Gandapur told a news conference soon after attending a detailed briefing at the CTD Headquarters at the Police Lines here.

The package includes the purchase of high-tech drones, sniper rifles with thermal and night vision capabilities, high-tech kits and bombproof vehicles. The package totalling Rs1 billion is to be presented and approved by the cabinet on Monday (today).

The chief minister was given a detailed presentation on the challenges and response of the CTD by its Additional Inspector General Shaukat Abbas.

Package includes purchase of high-tech drones, bombproof vehicles and sniper rifles

Inspector General of Police Akhtar Hayat Khan, chief secretary Nadeem Aslam Chaudhry, additional chief secretary home & tribal affairs department Abid Majeed and senior officers of CTD also attended the briefing.

Lauding the KP CTD, Mr Gandapur said that he had told the prime minister in the last apex committee meeting that the counter-terror entity in the province had shown remarkable performance and capabilities since 2023 to meet the challenge of rising terrorism.

He said that the CTD investigation had led to detection, prevention and investigation of some of the complex cases identifying the culprits and bringing them to justice. He said that the department had successfully prosecuted terrorists with remarkable improvement in conviction rate, denial of bail and increasing the duration of physical remand to crack hardened terrorists to reveal information.

“I am proud of the work the CTD has done. It is an unbelievable performance. They have applied out of the box approach and have achieved remarkable results,” he said, adding that KP now possessed all the necessary forensic facilities and the police in the province had no longer had to rely on Punjab to do the job.

“We are fighting to stop this menace from spreading to rest of the country. We are offering sacrifices to protect and safeguard the lives of our countrymen,” he said.

Asked to comment on charge that the provincial government had squandered the money provided to it to fight terror, the chief minister clarified that the federal government had never paid the 1% fund for war on terror.

“The federal government is confusing the money meant for the merged districts with the money meant for the war on terror,” he argued. “We were never given the amount committed,” he said. “We have had to spend from our own resources.”

Mr Gandapur said that the federal government had failed to live up to its commitment to support KP to shoulder financial obligations of the merged districts in the former Fata.

The KP, he said had to pay Rs40 billion from its own resources to foot the bill for increase in salaries of employees in the merged districts.

“We will continue to do whatever we can for our brothers in the merged districts but the federal government must also live up to its commitment. We are ready to sit down with it to address and resolve this issue,” he added.

Paying tributes to sacrifices of the slain officers and jawans of the police and security forces, the chief minister said that the ‘Shuhada quota’ for children of those died in the line of duty had been enhanced from five per cent to 12.5pc, while their families would be given plots in housing and residential schemes in the public sector.

Published in Dawn, December 2nd, 2024