In a first, female Christian cop posted as additional SHO in Kurram

PESHAWAR: A female Christian police officer was posted as the first additional station house officer (Ad-SHO) in the Kurram tribal district on Tuesday. 

This is the first time any woman police officer has been posted as an additional SHO in any former tribal area.

Speaking to The News, Kurram district police officer (DPO) Imran Mirza said that: “Samreen Amir has been posted as the additional SHO of the Parachinar police station in [the] Kurram district. We have also posted another woman, Sofia, as additional moharrar in the same police station.” Sofia Masih was earlier posted as the in-charge of the women’s desk in Kurram a couple of years back.

The Kurram DPO said that, apart from these two women, other policewomen in the district are also being trained so they can take part in regular police work more effectively.

This development is significant for the former tribal districts as there are not many women posted as SHOs even in the settled districts of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, including Peshawar. Only one woman was posted as acting

SHO -- that too, for a few days -- in the Gulberg police station in Peshawar. No other woman cop from the province recruited as constable or assistant sub inspector could become an SHO or sub divisional officer in any KP town in the past. Some of these women have now reached the rank of superintendent of police.

A few women from the police service, however, remained SDPOs as well as district police officers in KP. A PSP officer, Sonia Shamroz, is currently serving as the DPO in Battagram in the Hazara region.