Police take emergency steps to protect political gatherings in KP

PESHAWAR: The police in the provincial capital and rest of the province have adopted aggressive policing to ensure peace and protect political gatherings in the wake of the recent terrorist attacks on election rallies in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa and Balochistan.

Search and strike operations have been increased while security at the entry and exit points has been beefed up further. More snap checking and intelligence-based operations have been undertaken following attack on the rally of the Awami National Party (ANP) last Tuesday that resulted in the death of ANP leader Haroon Bilour and 21 others.

The bomb-proof checkposts around the provincial capital have been strengthened further while the Quick Response Force has been alerted. Patrolling across the cities and rural areas has also been increased.

“At least four joint search and strike operations are being carried out in Peshawar daily. We have increased security at the entry points, especially from the erstwhile tribal areas,” Javed Iqbal, the senior superintendent of police (SSP) operations Peshawar, told The News.

He said the cops have been directed to keep a check on hotels, serais, mosques, seminaries, roadside hotels and restaurants. Checking of the tenants without registration has also been increased.

“Police guards are given to all those about whom any specific threats are received or who are considered to be under threat by the Divisional Intelligence Coordination Committee,” said SSP Operations Javed Iqbal.

He added that the SSP operations has been authorized by the committee to issue permits for prohibited bore weapons to the candidates who are under threat till July 27 under certain terms and conditions.

“We have also sent written security advisories to all candidates stressing upon them to provide information of their gatherings in advance and also to use secure places for such gatherings and depute volunteers for body search, etc to augment security provided by the police,” said the SSP Operations.

Two major attacks in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa and another in Balochistan resulted in the death of dozens of people and injuries to several others. The recent surge in attacks has caused scare not only among the candidates and workers of different political parties, but also the general public.

However, majority of the contenders have refused to stop going out in public and that too in the last stage of their election campaign as they believe it will benefit their rivals.

“While keeping in view the security situation and to arrange proper security for election related activities, all the candidates need to inform the concerned police a day before any corner meeting. In case of any major event to be attended by important leaders, the police need to be informed three days before the event under the Election Code of Conduct 2018,” stated a circular issued by the Capital City Police authorities to the candidates of different political parties in Peshawar on Friday.

Attacks on candidates of different political parties have recorded a sudden increase over the last four days. In the first major attack on an election meeting in Peshawar, ANP leader and candidate for PK-78 Haroon Bashir Bilour was martyred along with 21 others on Tuesday. A number of party workers and locals were also wounded in the attack.

On Friday, former Khyber Pakhtunkhwa chief minister Akram Durrani survived a bomb attack on his convoy in Bannu. It resulted in the death of at least four people and injuries to over 30 others.

A few hours later, in the biggest attack in recent years, in Mastung area of Balochistan, terrorists targeted a political meeting of the Balochistan Awami Party. The candidate of the party for PB-35 constituency, Siraj Raisani, the brother of former Balochistan chief minister Nawab Aslam Raisani, was among the more than 150 people martyred in the blast. More than 100 other persons sustained injuries in the attack.

A number of attacks took place during the election campaign of different political parties in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa and rest of the country at the time of the 2013 polls. The law and order situation was better till last week, but attacks on political gatherings started all of a sudden since last Tuesday.