Over 600 houses recertified for improved security in Hayatabad

PESHAWAR: Over 600 houses in Hayatabad were recertified after police carried out re-verification of buildings occupied by the tenants in the backdrop of an operation against militants in Phase-7 in April.

A police officer and a soldier were martyred while five alleged terrorists were gunned down in an encounter in a house in Phase-7 in mid-April. Police said the house where the encounter with alleged terrorists continued for over 16 hours was a rented building and fake documents were used by the tenants to get it on rent.

The house was also razed to ground at the end of the operation when the bomb disposal unit experts detonated explosives planted there.

Police officials said they carried out a re-verification campaign of houses rented to people belonging to different parts of the country or coming from abroad to make sure no anti-state elements are residing there using fake documents as it be a threat to the security of Hayatabad and the provincial capital.

“In the backdrop of terrorist incidents in Hayatabad and the operation by the security forces in Phase 7, it was decided to carry out recertification of Tenants Information Forms (TIF) in the township. Special teams comprising one assistant sub-inspector and two constables were formed for the purpose and they have recertified 600 houses through random sampling,” Capital City Police Officer (CCPO) Qazi Jamilur Rehman told The News.

Thousands of people in Hayatabad are living on rent after they moved to Peshawar from different districts of the province for jobs, business, education of their children and other purposes. Besides, a large number of Afghan nationals have been living in Hayatabad for years.

According to the CCPO, 16 search and strike operations were also carried out in Hayatabad after the Phase-7 incident with special emphases to look for tenants residing without the tenant information forms. The official said 104 suspects were arrested during these actions while 174 others were charged for residing without submitting the required tenant information forms.

“Besides, checkposts were increased and patrolling cars and riders were made active as part of the Hayatabad Security Plan. As a preventive measure, credentials of 350 private security guards employed at Hayatabad were collected for verification. Also, 32 hawkers from outside Hayatabad and Peshawar were identified and their credentials were acquired for verification and monitoring,” explained Qazi Jamil.

Hayatabad is a posh town of the provincial capital sharing a long boundary with the tribal Khyber district. It was attacked with rockets and mortar shell many times from the territory of Khyber. Besides, many high profile individuals came under attack in the past in Hayatabad by armed men who easily escaped toward Khyber after committing the crime.

The security of Hayatabad has been upgraded over the last few years by constructing a wall along the boundary with Khyber, installing closed circuit television cameras in the town and increasing patrolling by the police and other forces.