KP CTD gets highest number of senior officers

PESHAWAR: For the first time, eight officers of the Police Service of Pakistan (PSP) have been placed at the disposal of the Counter Terrorism Department while a special Counter Terrorism Financing cell has been set up under a deputy inspector general to specially deal with the increasing cases of extortion.

Previously, one or two officers of the PSP cadre served in the CTD since its formation.

“There was a single PSP officer Khalid Sohail posted in the CTD till Monday who was the acting head of the force. On late Tuesday night a PSP officer Sher Akbar was posted as additional inspector general CTD while another PSP officer Imran Shahid was posted as DIG Counter Terrorism Finance,” an official said.

Some of the PSP officers, who were heading police in their respective districts, were transferred to the counter terrorism body on Tuesday for creating more important positions in its headquarters and important regions.

The officials transferred to the CTD include Senior Superintendent of Police Operations Peshawar Kashif Abbasi, District Police Officer of Bannu Muhammad Iqbal, DPO Buner Imran Khan, DPO Dera Ismail Khan Mohammad Shoaib and DPO Karak Khan Zeb.

“This is now for the first time that such a large number of PSP officers have been pooled in the counter terrorism body. Now it remains to be seen as to where they are posted and how their presence improves the performance of the important wing of the KP Police in such a challenging situation,” a source said.

The official added that a new position of DIG Counter Terrorism Finance had been created to take up hundreds of cases of extortion calls to the well-off people of KP.

An anti-extortion desk was created in the CTD over a year ago. However, the calls for extortion as well as hand-grenade attacks on houses by the extortionists recorded an alarming increase in recent months.

There is no proper headquarters for the important wing of the Khyber Pakhtunkhwa Police that is facing acts of terrorism along with

regular police.

The CTD has been given a small portion at the headquarters of the Peshawar Police where it shifted its offices from the Special Branch a couple of years back.

The force also lacks proper offices, bullet-proof vehicles, latest gadgets and other resources in headquarters and districts. The force never remained a priority for the senior officers as they wanted to head districts and that is why deputy superintendent of police and even inspectors had to head divisional set up of the CTD as acting SPs/SSPs in many areas.

The posting of too junior officers resulted in a number of issues and deteriorated the performance of the force. The government recently approved a special allowance equivalent to one basic pay for CTD to attract policemen in all ranks.

Apart from the CTD, the intelligence wing of the KP Police, Special Branch, has also got more PSP officers. The incumbent DIG Saqib Ismail Memon has been made the Ad IG of the Special Branch while two officers Sajjad Khan and Saleem Marwat were posted DIGs in the wing.

Before that former acting head of the CTD Javed Iqbal Wazir was also transferred to the Special Branch. Another senior officer Rab Nawaz Khan heads the bomb disposal unit of the KP Police that works under the Ad IG Special Branch.