Up to 751 arrested in KP to achieve FATF targets

PESHAWAR: The Khyber Pakhtunkhwa Police have registered 516 cases and arrested 751 accused during actions across the province to achieve the Financial Action Task Force targets, KP Police chief Sanaullah Abbasi said.

As many as 128 accused have been convicted by the courts after their arrest. “A total of Rs252 million have been recovered from the held accused in actions under FATF requirements,” Abbasi said.

He added that more targets were achieved during the last year as CTD is aggressively going after those involved in money laundering.The FATF, in a statement in November last year, said Pakistan has made progress across all action plan items and has now largely addressed 21 of the 27 action items. The statement added the FATF strongly urges Pakistan to swiftly complete its full action plan by February 2021.

In Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, the Counter-Terrorism Department has lodged 104 cases under FATF during 2020 only. As many as 144 accused were arrested in these actions, 46 were convicted while an amount of Rs83.69 million was recovered during the last 12 months.A number of actions were taken against the people involved in money laundering and other related crimes in the last few years.

Till recent years, only Federal Investigation Agency used to take action against money laundering. However, the CTD and other agencies have also accelerated actions against the illegal money transactions in the last few years to meet the FATF targets.

Apart from actions under FATF, 95 alleged terrorists were killed and 381 others held in various actions by the CTD across KP in 2020.

Last year, increase in terrorist incidents were reported in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa during 2020 while target killing, extortion and kidnappings dropped down in the last 12 months, official statistics said.

As per the data of CTD. 156 terrorist incidents were reported in KP in 2020 while the number of such incidents in 2019 was 104.Abbasi said the number of mentioned terrorist incidents included engagements by the law enforcement agencies in which terrorists were killed, injured or arrested and the bids were foiled. As many as 95 of terror incidents were reported in the erstwhile Fata while 61 were reported from the rest of the KP during 2020.

In 2019, a total of 104 terrorist incidents were reported which included 53 in newly merged districts and 51 in the rest of the KP.