K-P Police misses the mark as performance slumps

Lack of criminal records has allowed offenders to return to the streets without being charged for a repeat offence

PESHAWAR:

The Khyber Pakhtunkhwa (K-P) Police force which is normally praised for its service appears to have missed a few marks this time, failing to record criminal data and skipping crucial aspects of the investigation process.

Per reports, goons arrested for conducting major criminal operations in the northwestern province, including bank heists, street crimes, and target killings, are often acquitted without their information being recorded by the police. Owing to this, when these criminals are arrested again, their FIR is not strong enough and cannot justify habitual offense, so they are released from jail in a few days and casually resume their life of crime.

Similarly, in the provincial capital of Peshawar, where millions of rupees have been dedicated to improving police infrastructure, the police force itself has paid little attention to improving core areas of its work, like investigation. It is alleged that investigative officers deployed across 33 police stations in the city have either been convicted or not working along with the Operation Police, which has created difficulty for citizens in their quest for justice.

According to documents obtained by The Express Tribune, Peshawar’s 15 most notable gangsters include Zeeshan, Sajid Gul, Safir Alam, Nigar, Mubeen, Adeel, Zeeshaney, Muhammad Ayaz, Kalu, Aurangzeb, Shakeel, Sohail Islam, Mian daad, Usman, and Ahmed Zubair, against whom the police have recorded FIRs for over 50 incidents.

Although these gangsters have been arrested several times during the last six years, their time behind the bars has only lasted a few days after each arrest. The reason is that despite access to modern technology, identifying details of these criminals such as photographs, first information reports, addresses, and NIC numbers have yet not been digitised by the police, which makes it difficult to prove that they are habitual offenders.

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The K-P Police Act maintains that if any accused goes to jail after being arrested for major crimes, including property cases, robbery, embezzlement, snatching, gambling, extortion, or kidnapping for ransom, then the CIA Pacts will be bound to keep a record of essential data of these criminals, following Operation Guideline 32. These include a photo of the accused/offender, their identity card, fingerprints, costume, facial features, mobile number, FIR, period of imprisonment, home address, and personal file— all of which the K-P police appears to have remained negligent with.

In this regard, Adil, who is a resident of the city believes that Peshawar has been seeing an increase in certain crimes due to inattention of the local police. “For some odd reason, if anyone goes to the police station to report a mobile phone snatching in Peshawar, the officers there remain reluctant to register an FIR. Even if an FIR is somehow registered, the attitude of the investigation team is so strange that the complainant eventually abandons the case and no recovery is made,” he alleged.

According to SSP Investigations Peshawar Shehzada Kaukab 4,000 cases are registered each month in the provincial capital, while the number reaches 50,000 per year. “Whatever the case is, big or small, the investigative teams try their best to follow the protocol. The Investigation Department's system is currently under the process of being digitised, after which criminal records will be available on one click,” he told.

However, offering a reason for the department’s lackluster performance, sources in the Investigation Department revealed that the investigation police in Peshawar is faced with a shortage of 4,00 police officers at the moment.

They maintained that the number of investigative personnel in Peshawar has not been increased compared to the growing population ratio of the city. “An investigating officer receives 20 to 25 cases daily, out of which only significant cases have been worked on,” a source informed The Express Tribune on conditions of anonymity.

Published in The Express Tribune, March 26^th, 2022.