Misplaced priorities : CTD in dire straits despite terror woes

Although plans are being made to address dept’s needs, it might be a little too late

PESHAWAR:

The resurgence of terrorism in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa (K-P) has exposed the province’s lack of funding to the Counter Terrorism Department (CTD), which has been largely dormant even in areas prone to violence by banned outfits.

Even though areas like Bannu, Kohat, and Swat are vulnerable to terrorism, the inattention by governments past and present to the CTD have put a question mark on their priorities. For instance, in Bannu, CTD officials do not have offices or vehicles to keep a check on the movement of terrorists, as per sources privy to the information. Moreover, the CTD building in Bannu, which has been under construction for a while now, has not been completed because the contractor has not been paid.

Similarly, in Kohat, according to a senior police official, who spoke to the Express Tribune under the condition of anonymity, the CTD’s vehicles have not been fuelled since September of last year due to a paucity of funds. “We have repeatedly written to the provincial finance department to release money for fuel but our requests have fallen on deaf ears,” the official regretted. Furthermore, like the CTD building in Bannu, the CTD’s offices have been under construction for a while now and the contractor has refused to complete the work due to non-payment of past dues.

“It is extremely difficult to operate the CTD network given our lack of resources. Sometimes it feels like we have been left to fend for ourselves,” remarked the official.

Some 260 kilometres away from Kohat in Swat, the disregard for the CTD remains the same - the regional headquarters for the CTD are still under construction with no timeline on completion; there is no forensic lab or modern equipment; and vehicles of the CTD’s raiding teams have been sitting idle for 3 months now due to lack of funds for fuel.

Acknowledging the myriad of crises that the CTD is facing in a recent media talk, the Inspector General (IG) K-P, Akhtar Hayat Khan, had said that not only was the department ill-equipped but 1,500 posts were lying vacant. In the same press-briefing Khan vowed that the CTD would be made to stand on its feet and shortage of officers would be addressed.

However, Dr Basharat Hussain, Head of the Peshawar University’s Criminology Department, dismissed the IG’s promises as laughable at best. “The IG is here probably for another 2 or 3 months and it is impossible to put the CTD on its feet in such a short time,” he said matter-of-factly, adding that such efforts should have come a decade ago. “The world over counter terrorism departments rely on data, modern equipment, and artificial intelligence, to collect information about terrorists and then make plans to counter them. Our CTDs on the other hand focus on physical attacks and using traditional methods, which do not generate any results,” criticised the departmental Head.

Dr Hussain’s criticism is not amiss though, as the Express Tribune learnt that for a province that has a land area of more than 100,000 square kilometres the CTD has only 3 Global System for Mobile Communication (GSM) locators - one of which was disabled in a terrorist attack last year. Further proof of K-P’s CTD being in dire straits lies in the fact that recently a grade-20 officer, Sher Akbar Khan, was notified as the department’s Additional IG, but he refused to take charge due to lack of resources and was subsequently appointed as DIG Communications instead.

Former Home Secretary, Dr Syed Akhtar Ali Shah, concurring with Dr Hussain’s assessment, opined that personnel shortage was not an issue. “In 2013, K-P had 80,000 police officials, this number has ballooned to 125,000 today. These officials can easily be transferred to the CTD but the basic issue is lack of resources - the CTD is not well-equipped to fight terrorism at this point in time,” evaluated Dr Shah while talking to The Express Tribune.

 

Published in The Express Tribune, May 1^st, 2023.a