88,000 policemen engaged for polls: IGP

PESHAWAR: The Khyber Pakhtunkhwa Police will get support from the Azad Jammu and Kashmir Police as well as Frontier Constabulary to deploy around 88,000 cops for security during elections in the wake of the recent terrorist attacks.

“Over 60,000 policemen will perform security of the polling stations while another 28,000 cops will be doing other policing duties during the polls. To meet the shortage of policemen for the election duty, we have got 66 platoons of the Frontier Constabulary and 500 policemen from the AJK Police,” the Inspector General of Police (IGP), Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, Mohammad Tahir, told The News.

Security of the polling stations, candidates and voters in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa is the main concern after the recent wave of terror attacks which started from July 10 with a suicide bombing at an election campaign meeting of the Awami National Party candidate Haroon Bilour in Peshawar. Haroon Biour and 21 others were martyred in the attack.

The incident was followed by a bomb attack on former chief minister Akram Khan Durrani in Bannu that left four people dead. The same day, 149 people died in an attack on a political rally in Balochistan’s Mastung town.

On Sunday, a former minister in the Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf government and a candidate from PK-99 Ikramullah Gandapur was martyred in a suicide attack in Kulachi tehsil of the Dera Ismail Khan. His brother and former provincial minister Israrullah Gandapur was also killed in a suicide attack in October 2013. The KP Police authorities say adequate security measures have been taken for the election across the province.

“Targeted operations have been intensified all over the province. To meet any eventuality, apart from security plans, contingency plans have been worked out. Also, to respond to anything serious Quick Response Forces will be deployed in a manner that shall act in the minimum possible time,” said the KP police chief KP who assumed office hardly a few weeks back.

The IGP said during the pre-election phase, security arrangements were made in close collaboration with the Election Commission of Pakistan, district administration, security, intelligence agencies and district returning officers.

“The services of Frontier Constabulary have been requisitioned to plug the unfrequented routes to the cities from the erstwhile Federally Administered Tribal Areas. Besides, the security in district adjoining Punjab has also been beefed up,” Mohammad Tahir said.

He said the security has been upgraded and police posts strengthened in certain pockets of districts having boundaries with erstwhile Frontier Regions, particularly Dera Ismail Khan, Tank, Peshawar Bannu, Lakki Marwat as well as some areas in Mardan and Malakand divisions.

The KP Police have set up a special control room in Peshawar to monitor security across the province during the polling process.

As the province lacks sufficient strength of policewomen to be deployed at female polling stations, the force has hired the services of female employees from other departments for the security duty during the elections.

Rescue 1122 completes polls arrangements: The Rescue 1122 has completed arrangements for performing duty during the elections, officials said on Sunday.

The spokesman for the Rescue 1122, Bilal Ahmad Faizi, said the rescue teams had been alerted in all the 10 districts where the services had been launched to respond forthwith to any emergency.

The official said leaves of all the staff had been cancelled while ambulances provided with all the basic requirements to help people.

Polls security plan finalised for Abbottabad: A total of 2,392 cops will be deployed including 639 ladies, on election day and two Quick Response Force units will be on stand-by at the district Police Lines.

This was decided in a law and order meeting held in the office of District Police Officer Abbottabad Abbas Majeed Khan Marwat at DPO office on Sunday.

SP Investigation, Additional SP, Commander Elite Force and other officials of Abbottabad district were present. SP Investigation Aziz Khan Afridi and Additional SP Sonia Shamroz Khan were assigned to look after job of law and order while SP Malik Ejaz was assigned the job of in-charge traffic for the election day.

The Abbottabad district has been further divided into 12 sub-sectors, controlled by the SHOs of the respective police stations.

In the total 52 union councils, 750 polling stations will be established where 160 have been declared most sensitive and 50 sensitive polling stations where extra deployment of police will be done.