PESHAWAR, March 28: “Inaction on the part of LEAs (law-enforcement agencies) -– government on the retreat. Writ of the government shrinking with every passing day. Vacuum being filled by non-state actors. Respect for law and state authority gradually diminishing. Morale of the LEAs and people supportive of government on the decline. Talibanisation, lawlessness and terrorism on the rise.”

This rather scary “situation analysis” of the NWFP was presented at a high-level meeting in Peshawar early this month convened exclusively to discuss the deteriorating law and order situation against the backdrop of creeping Talibanisation in some of the southern districts of the province and the adjoining tribal territories.

The meeting held on March 6 was attended by Governor Lt-Gen (retd) Ali Mohammad Jan Aurakzai, Chief Minister Akram Khan Durrani, senior government and security officials and heads of law-enforcement agencies.

In a detailed presentation, the participants were told that as a result of the fallout of the war on terror and operation against extremists in Fata, there was a spillover effect of the so-called Talibanisation in the districts adjoining tribal regions of South and North Waziristan, resulting in bomb blasts, suicide attacks and target killing of law-enforcement personnel.

Explaining the current situation, the meeting was told that suicide attacks were on the rise, extremism and militancy was spreading in Fata and the NWFP, there was free movement of militants, their financial, physical and moral support was growing in the presence of large number of LEAs.

The situation, it said, was further compounded by what it called ‘inaction’ on the part of law-enforcement agencies against “those openly challenging government’s authority”.

Part of the problem, according to senior government officials interviewed by Dawn, was the dismantling of established institutions that served to coordinate between the tribal territories and the adjoining settled districts of the NWFP under the so-called devolution plan.

“A plan envisaged for the whole country, which failed to take into account the peculiar geographical situation of the NWFP, was implemented. Now there is no link-up. The chief secretary is virtually acting as the commission of the NWFP and the home secretary as his deputy commissioner,” remarked one senior official.

But much of the problem, according to security and senior administration officials, lies in the shortage of police manpower and logistic support.

Ironically, the strength of the NWFP police force which was nearly 35,000 in 1947 remains almost static, at 36,000 sixty years after independence, putting the police-population ratio to one policeman for 800 people, compared with the Punjab where it is one policeman for every 300.

Some government officials grumble that while the situation continues to deteriorate, commitment by federal government led by former prime minister Mir Zafarullah Khan Jamali three years ago to let the NWFP government to recruit 15,000 police over a period of three years has not been met.

Not only that, there is also shortage of a well-trained bomb disposal squad, particularly in the districts affected by militancy, the scope of the Crimes Investigation Department, whose sole mandate now is to fight terrorism, is restricted to Peshawar.

Information-sharing between the intelligence agencies and the LEAs continues to be a problem, creating further hurdles in coping with what one official described as an extraordinary situation.

To further aggravate the situation, nearly 70 per cent of the Frontier Constabulary, whose basic job is to man the border between the tribal areas and the settled districts of the NWFP, are serving in Islamabad, Karachi and Balochistan.

The federal government has been dragging its feet on promises either to return the Frontier Constabulary to the NWFP to meet its dire security needs or foot the bill to let it carry out recruitment to meet the shortage.

The meeting was told that the provincial government needed at least three wings of the paramilitary Frontier Corps and 40 platoons of the Frontier Constabulary to augment the police effort against militants, in addition to at least three wings of the Frontier Corps for simultaneous action in Khyber and Bajaur tribal regions.

The Frontier Corps, however, is said to have expressed its inability to provide additional force because of its heavy presence in South and North Waziristan.

The meeting was also informed about the need for putting in place some form of a coordination mechanism between Fata and the settled areas at the regional level.

But most importantly, it called for the “discontinuation of policy of compromises”.

According to the government’s own statistics, made available to Dawn, there has been a two-fold increase in the number of bomb explosions in the NWFP from 27 in 2004 to 35 in 2006.

As against this, in January and February 2007, there have been 25 such incidents in the NWFP, claiming a total of 23 lives.

Government officials said that the participants were given a detailed assessment of the situation in parts of the NWFP, including some southern districts of the NWFP, namely Tank, Dera Ismail Khan, Bannu and Lakki Marwat in view of the growing phenomenon of Talibanisation and open and blatant challenges to the writ of the government there.They were also briefed on the resurgence of the defunct Tehrik-i-Nifaz-i-Shariat Muhammadi, particularly in Swat region where Maulana Fazlullah aka Maulana Radio was making full use of his illegally set up FM radio station to stop people from sending girls to schools and getting their children vaccinated against polio.

Recently, anonymous letters were delivered to girls’ schools in Charsadda and Mardan asking them to wear veils; shops dealing in video CDs have been warned to stop their ‘un-Islamic’ business or face retaliation.

In some areas, also in the outskirts of Peshawar, barbers have been threatened of dire consequences if they do not stop shaving beards.

Government and security officials worry that while the situation is getting out of control, there appears to be total paralysis and inaction on the part of the federal government to do anything about it.

“There seems to be some sort of paralysis at the decision-making level. There is little one can do in these circumstances other than fire-fighting,” commented one official.

“These are not normal times. Extraordinary situations demand extraordinary decisions. Unfortunately, the focus at the decision-making level now is more on politics than security. It (security) is on the back-burner,” the official said.