Curbing terrorism: Intelligent visitor cards being introduced for entry to Peshawar red zone

PESHAWAR: The data of all the employees, residents and visitors to the red zone of the provincial capital was being uploaded in a new system to allow entry at checkpoints through artificial intelligence, officials said on Sunday.

They said that apart from walk-through gates, turnstile gates, facial recognition cameras, customized luggage scanners and intelligent visitor cards are being introduced for entry to the red zone in Peshawar.

Thousands of people come to the red zone daily for jobs and other purposes as it houses the Police Lines, Civil Secretariat, Central Police Office, Governor’s House, Chief Minister’s House and many other key installations.

The security of the red-zone has been upgraded after the attack on the Malik Saad Shaheed Police Lines, the headquarters of the Peshawar police, on January 30. The security lapse resulted in huge loss to the police force.

Khyber Pakhtunkhwa Inspector General of Police (IGP) Akhtar Hayat Khan confirmed that artificial intelligence was being used to secure the red zone. “The data of all the employees, residents and frequent visitors will be uploaded in the system. The machine at the checkpost will allow entry to anyone after facial recognition,” he said.

He said this would end the old system of showing cards or other documents to the security personnel at checkpoints. “The data collection will soon start and the system will start working in a couple of months. This will improve security in the red zone,” the IGP said.

Asked whether it would not add to the problems of the commoners at checkpoints, he said this would take less time than manual checking at checkpoints in the red zone. It remains to be seen as to how the people will be able to access any area in the red zone after the new system is installed. There are a large number of offices and places that are being visited daily by the common visitors for official purposes.

According to Akhtar Hayat, technology is key to modern policing as machines don’t make mistakes. “We are making efforts to install the maximum number of closed-circuit television cameras in Peshawar and other cities. This will help us monitor any area and prevent criminals from operating for the fear of being monitored besides helping the police to work out cases,” said the police chief.