K-P assembly pays tribute to police, security forces

Lawmakers demand probe to find out how armed militants rented a house amid strict checking

PESHAWAR: Khyber Pakhtunkhwa Assembly paid tribute to police and security forces for protecting the lives of the people from militants by carrying out successful Hayatabad Operation in which five terrorists were killed after 17-hour long gunfight.

However, the public representatives said that an investigation should be carried out to discover how did the militants managed to rent out a house in a posh area of the provincial capital besides stocking arms and ammunition.

K-P has very strict laws for renting out homes and details of tenants are shared with local police.

On a calling attention notice, PPP MPA Nighat Orakzai paid tribute to the force in carrying out the successful operation in the Hayatabad Phase VII. “Defeat is the destiny of the militants. They will never succeed in their nefarious designs as long as Pakistan’s armed forces are here to protect the motherland,” she said. “We need to realise how many people these terrorists could have killed, how many children could have been orphaned, women widowed and mothers left crying for their children, if the security forces had not eliminated the terrorists,” she said.

Orkazai said that K-P Asembly should give awards to officers and jawans who took part in the operation.

The PPP lawmaker said that 9,000 personnel of Special Police Force (SPF) whose contracts are going to expire within three month should be merged into K-P police.

MMA MPA Inayatullah Khan reminded that peace was restored in the region due to the matchless scarifies of security forces.

However, he demanded a thorough investigation to find out how heavy arms and ammunitions reached the posh area of the province in the first place. The terrorists had enough munitions to engage forces for 17 hours, how did they manage to slip the weapons through checkpoints, it needs to be investigated he said.

Laiq Muhammad Khan stated that the slain ASI who has rendered his life for the safety of the land was a brave soul, while the ANP MPA Khushdil Khan stated that provincial government should identify people providing access to militants in city area.

ANP parliamentary leader Sardar Hussian Babak stated that federal government failed to implement the National Action Plan (NAP), due to which terror threat remains.

He stated that police are meant to prevent and investigate crimes, they are not mandated to fight militants, that is why backup of security forces is demanded in situations like the Hayatabad Operation.

PPP MPA Ahmed Kundi was of the view that accountably should be carried out across the board. Everyone in the country has made scarifies for peace, therefore no one should be above accountability to maintain peace and order.

Published in The Express Tribune, April 17^th, 2019.