Police patrolling, especially during the night, can play a crucial role in eliminating conventional forms of terrorism
PESHAWAR: While everyone these days — including think tanks and the intelligentsia — has been beating the drum about long-term solutions to the resurging wave of terrorism, little are they aware of the realities on the ground. There is no doubt that the roots of the evil of terrorism will take some time to die out. Terrorist outfits are returning to their conventional means of killing people, through IEDs and other planted devices. One such example is the recent bomb blast on a government bus in Peshawar. Call it the frustration of a vanquished enemy or a renewed terror strategy — it does require an immediate and expedient solution.
As a part of the police force, I am quite aware how miscreants and terrorists remain active during specific times of the night. I still remember my relative once calling me at around 2am in the morning and telling me that he had seen an alleged terrorist carrying some explosives in a plastic bag. I immediately called up the local police station of the specific area but their response was — nothing. Subsequently, a few days later, the ANP leadership was targeted at the very spot where that alleged terrorist was previously spotted by my relative.
My point to narrate this unfortunate event is to emphasise the crucial role police patrolling can play, especially during night-time, in eliminating conventional forms of terrorism. Police patrolling comes to a partial or complete halt after midnight, giving ample time and confidence to criminals, including terrorists, to fulfill their objectives and get away with their barbaric acts. Nonetheless, the police cannot be held responsible for this stagnation. Thousands of our fellow police companions do not even hesitate to lay down their lives in the line of duty. This stoppage in police patrolling is due to the fact that police officials in Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa are overburdened by incessant operational duties, besides special duties from time to time. The police officers need respite from stressful duties to enable them to spend time with their families. The number of duty shifts ought to be increased from two, to either three or four, with each shift covered by different police officers and officials. They should not perform more than eight hours of duty in 24 hours. However, the success of this solution would depend on augmenting police strength — in other words, the number of police officers — by relieving them of excessive VVIP security duty.
Faisal Rehman
Published in The Express Tribune, March 27th, 2016.
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