Khyber Pakhtunkhwa Chief Minister Mahmood Khan on Tuesday termed the peaceful holding of the upcoming local bodies elections as the prime responsibility of the government.
He was presiding over a high-level meeting regarding law & order in the province here which was besides others attended by Special Assistant to Chief Minister on Information Barrister Muhammad Ali Saif, Chief Secretary Shehzad Bangash, Inspector General Police Muazzam Jah Ansari and Principal Secretary to CM Amjad Ali Khan, concerned Administrative Secretaries, Divisional Commissioners, Regional Police Officers and other high ups of police.
The meeting took stock of the overall law & order situation with special focus on the upcoming local bodies’ elections and the ongoing Polio Campaign and a number of important decisions were taken to this end.
The chief minister directed the police and administration for foolproof security arrangements in this regard, and assured that the provincial government would provide all the required resources for the purpose on priority basis.
The chief minister while showing concerns on some law & order incidents in certain parts of the province especially attacks on Police Personnel deputed on the security of Police teams, directed the high ups of Police for effective measures to avoid such incidents in future and improve the overall law and order situation.
He termed the untoward incident that took place in Mandani area of district Charsadda few days back as serious concern and directed that an independent inquiry covering all the aspects of the incidents be conducted through special branch and report of the inquiry be presented soon.
He said that no one would be allowed to challenge the writ of the government and take the law into one’s own hand as courts and laws exist to punish the culprits.
Mahmood Khan termed the long lasted land disputes amongst various tribes of the merged districts as one of the main reasons of law and order in the area and directed the home department, police and concerned divisional and district administrations to devise a mechanism acceptable to both the parties for peaceful resolution of all such disputes once for all.
He also directed Commissioner and Regional Police Officer Hazara to revisit the security plan for the security of foreigners working on mega developmental project in the region and put in place a fool proof security arrangement to this end in consultation with the concerned departments.
Mahmood Khan further directed all the concerned quarters to work together to devise a regulatory mechanism and capacity building of the concerned entities to effectively counter the disinformation campaigns on social media.
Moreover, the chief minister directed the concerned authorities to re-launch an aggressive campaign against narcotics across the province soon after the local bodies polls further directing them to identify all those involved in the supply of drugs in educational institutions so that stern actions could be initiated against them.
He also directed the social welfare department and all other concerned entities to work together for a course of action in collaboration with the relevant private sector organizations for the rehabilitation of drug addicts in the province.
Briefing the participants of the meeting about the law and order situation security arrangements for the local bodies polls and other related matters, it was told that about 77,000 police personals would be deployed for local bodies elections in 17 districts of the province in addition to 10,000 Quick Response Forces of Army and Frontier Corps as a back up to avoid any untoward situation during the polling adding that 9000 polling stations in 17 districts have been divided into three different categories i.e. A, B, C with regard to security arrangements.
It was informed that a total of nine security personals would be deployed in category-A polling stations, five in category B and three in category C polling stations.
The meeting was told that as compared to October 2021, there had been a substantial decrease in the incidents of robberies, murders and abduction during the month of November in the province; and added that during the month of November a total of 1879 proclaimed offenders have been arrested, 2800 kilogram of various kinds of narcotics recovered whereas a total of 5454 arms seized across the province.
The forum was informed that a Special Patrolling Squad (Abbabeel Squad) was being raised to effective counter street crimes in the provincial capital Peshawar and added that initially the Squad will consist of 200 Motorbikes and 800 Police personnel, which will be increased to 400 Motorbikes and 1600 police personal for round the clock patrolling in the city.
It was further informed that in the second phase the Ababeel Squad would be rolled out to six more districts followed by 26 districts in the next phase.
