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Thursday March 28, 2024

25 police stations to be set up in Fata districts

By Javed Aziz Khan
February 09, 2019

PESHAWAR: About 25 police stations will be set up initially in the erstwhile Federally Administered Tribal Areas to start formal policing in the merged tribal districts in a couple of weeks, a source told The News on Friday.

The Home Department and the KP Police have moved a summary to set up one police station in every sub-division of the tribal districts and former Frontier Regions, the source added.

Two police stations will be set up in Bajaur, one in Khar and another in Nawagai sub-division of the tribal district. Besides, three police stations will start functioning in Mohmand, one each in Lower and Upper Mohmand and another in Baizai sub-division.

The summary moved to the provincial government suggested one each police station in Bara, Landikotal and Jamrud sub-divisions of the Khyber tribal district. Lower and Upper Orakzai sub-divisions will also have one each police stations.

There will be three police stations in Kurram, in lower, upper and central Kurram sub-divisions. Mir Ali, Miranshah and Razmak sub-divisions of North Waziristan will also get one each police station. In South Waziristan, there will be one each police station in Ladha, Sarwakai and Wana.

Separately, at least one each police station in all the former Frontier Regions, Hassankhel, Darra Adamkhel, Wazir, Bhittani, Darazinda and Jandola will start functioning soon. The government has also been asked to notify South Waziristan as part of the Dera Ismail Khan region, South Waziristan in Bannu Range, Kurram and Orakzai in Kohat Range, Khyber in Peshawar Range, Mohmand in Mardan and Bajaur in Malakand Range of police so that the regional police officers concerned start formal supervision of policing in these districts.

A meeting of the apex committee recently made it clear that the inspector general of police and the relevant RPOs and DPOs would be directly heading the policing in their respective areas.

"The IGP KP has been demanding a complete command and control over Levies and Khassadars during the transitional period while the bureaucracy wanted the Levies to continue working under the command of the deputy commissioner," the source said.

Since the process of merger has been going on for quite a few months, Prime Minister Imran Khan appointed Salahuddin Mahsud, a tribesman from Waziristan, as IGP KP for a second term for his understanding of the local culture, including the jirga system, and tribal norms and values. Now it has been assured that the proposed Levies and Khassadars Act will be only for the transitional period to make sure the smooth induction of these law enforcers into the KP Police. Otherwise the KP Police Act will be implemented in all the merged districts like any other law of the Khyber Pakhtunkhwa.

When approached, the KP police chief said only complete authority to the police bosses would yield results. "The IGP and DPO will give better results when they will have direct command and control with complete administrative and operational autonomy. This is also required to operationalise and evaluate induction of levies and Khassadars in KP Police," IGP Salahuddin Mahsud told The News.