Volatile constituency: NA-4 to pose tough challenge for law enforcers

Army personnel deployed in police stations to respond to emergencies in minutes.

PESHAWAR:

The NA-4 constituency on the outskirts of the city remains the most volatile in terms of security.

Wracked by the deep-rooted militancy in the district, it will pose a real challenge for law enforcement agencies to maintain law and order on Election Day.

It is the area where the most number of girls schools have been blown up; the area where the highest number of attacks against police posts, security vehicles and installations including grid stations and telephone towers have taken place.

Here, locals have raised peace militias to counter militancy. Due to this, Adezai, Suliman Khel and Bazid Khel have been primary targets for militants over the past few years. Awami National Party (ANP) candidate Arbab Ayub Jan, who has served as the provincial minister for agriculture, is now on the militants’ hit-list because of his service.

By the same token, NA-4 borders three tribal areas, including Frontier Region (FR) Peshawar, FR Kohat (Darra Adam Khel) and Akka Khel area of Khyber Agency. This provides militants the opportunity to strike a target in the settled districts and retreat back to their hideouts in the tribal belt.



Election campaign has been a challenge for the ANP and the Pakistan Peoples Party (PPP) this election season. The void has allowed their rivals, including Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf’s (PTI) Gulzar Khan, Jamaat-e-Islami’s (JI) Sabir Hussain Awan and Jamiat Ulema-e-Islam-Fazl (JUI-F) to fill the political vacuum, considering these parties do not face the same security threats and have been able to campaign more freely.

Some parts of NA-3, including Mathra, Khazana and Daudzai are also very sensitive. Several pro-government tribal elders have been targeted by militants in Khazana and Mathra. Militants have also launched fatal attacks on polio workers.

In Chagharmati and Garhi Sherdad, threatening pamphlets surfaced last week. Similar warnings also appeared in Mattani, Suliman Khel and Sheikh Muhammadi asking people to not vote on Election Day because ‘democracy is against Islam.’

Haji Asad, a local elder, said militants came to the area two days ago at night and tore down the flags of different parties in Qadarabad, Mattani. “They were around 40 of them and no one intercepted them, which means they rule the area after sundown,” he said.

Mattani DSP Fazal-e-Wahid said he has been provided with enough police contingents to maintain security for the elections and around 200 army soldiers have also been deployed along the Khyber Agency border to check infiltration. “The situation it is not a secret. These are areas where several militant factions operate,” he agreed.

The police said army personnel were being deployed in police stations in far flung areas and will be acting as a quick response force to deal with any untoward situation on a few minutes’ notice.

Published in The Express Tribune, May 9^th, 2013.