K-P police dedicates officers for victim support

The newly trained female officers will provide medical, legal and psychological support to women and child victims

PESHAWAR: Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa has come a long way when it comes to the restoration of law and order, but the province still struggles with the spectre of violence, especially against women and children.

As many as 217 women were murdered in the province last year. A staggering 1,384 cases of other forms of violence targeting women were recorded in K-P in 2019 as well, a 24 per cent increase from the year before.

In a bid to tackle this alarming rise, the K-P police department has decided to incorporate ‘victim support officers’ in its ranks to immediately take up cases of violence and abuse against both women and children. The staff, already trained for four different districts, will not only immediately take up the cases but also extend both legal and psychiatric support to the victims of such crimes, a top police official said.

“A dedicated desk for women is already in place at different police stations across the province and will now facilitate both women and children who are victims of violence and abuse,” Deputy Inspector General Kashif Alam said. “The officers will not only take up the cases but with the support of different other provincial departments victims will be offered medical as well as psycho-social support at the same time.”

According to Alam, 20 female police officers have been trained with support from the UK Department of International Development (DFID). Some 29 posts which will soon be filled by the female officers trained in this manner have been identified as well.

“The pilot project has been launched in five K-P districts: Peshawar, Mardan, Charsadda, Swat and Abbottabad,” said Alam. “The priority of the pilot project staff will be to offer any support services, be it medical, psychological or legal, to the victims immediately.”

“Our duty is to protect vulnerable segments of the society—minorities specially and this is a great initiative but I would suggest if this could be widened—beyond settled districts [referring to recently merged districts],” said K-P Police chief Sanaullah Abbasi while commenting on the move. He expressed his wish of setting up similar victim support desks in the erstwhile tribal areas as well.

“After we have an impact analysis of the pilot project, we hope to see if we can extend it to the recently merged tribal districts, which require the most attention,” Abbasi said.

“We are enforcers of the fundamental rights of the general public and the constitution has empowered us to protect human rights—we have to prevent as well as detect it [violence] since this is our core duty,” Abbasi said earlier while addressing a ceremony conferring certificates to DFID trained female constables on Friday.