K-P witnesses over 50% decline in terrorism cases compared to 2016

Extortion, terrorism still continue to haunt people with 71 extortion and 126 terrorism cases reported this year

PESHAWAR: Despite Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa (K-P) has witnessed a slight decline in the overall crime rate in the outgoing year, the menace of extortion and terrorism still continue to haunt people with 71 extortion and 126 terrorism cases reported to police this year.

Last year, 91 cases of extortion were reported. Majority of the cases were not reported to police as many wealthy individuals silently paid the demanded amount to militants in order to avoid confrontation.



By the same token, last year around 258 cases of terrorism were reported in K-P. This year there has been decline of almost 51% in reported militancy cases.

Terrorists, however, were able to carry out important attacks including the targeting of Additional Inspector General (AIG) Ashraf Noor in a suicide attack in Hayatabad area of Peshawar, which was claimed by the Islamic State (IS). The assault on the Agricultural Training Institute (ATI) along with a suicide attack targetting a Frontier Corps (FC) vehicle in Hayatabad area which killed an army officer, Major Jamal.

There were 19 cases of kidnapping for ransom across the province compared to last year’s 21 cases, showing a slight 10% decline.

Around 2,207 people were killed, as per the police record, compared to the 2,372 murders registered in K-P last year, showing another 7% decline.

There were 738 burglaries in the province showing a decrease compared to the 766 last year, registering a 4% decrease.

Motorcycle theft, bike snatching and car lifting continued unabated across the province as 155 cases of car theft, 25 cases of car snatching, 374 cases of bike theft, and 133 cases of bike snatching were recorded.



Around 5,221 fourth schedulers were kept under constant check in the province as part of the defensive strategy of police.

Around 99 people were arrested across K-P on charges of hate speech and hate material and 3,360 people were held on the misuse of loudspeakers in the province while 3,162 first information report (FIRs) were also registered on the misuse of loudspeakers.