Vigilance committees: Police finalise names of 1,600 residents

Each committee member will be issued ‘police cards’ after verification.

ISLAMABAD: In an attempt to better manage security issues in the capital, the Islamabad Police have finalised names of 1,600 residents who will be part of vigilance committees being formed by the police.

Inspector General of Police (IGP) Tahir Alam Khan made the announcement while addressing a briefing session arranged for members of the “security and vigilance committees” at the Police Lines on Sunday.



AIG (Operations) Dr Sultan Azam Temuri, SSP Mir Vais Niaz, all zonal SPs, SDPOs, SHOs and beats officers were also present.

According to the top cop, the vigilance committees will work in various residential areas and each police station has been divided into beats with a purpose to effectively combat crime.

Currently, 99 committees have been formed and an officer of assistant sub-inspector rank has been appointed as beat officer who will ensure complete coordination with the committee members.

The committees will soon be functional to ensure effective security in the city through community policing, the IG said, adding that special cards will be issued to the members.

He said that 2,700 applications were received from residents, of which 1,600 have been finalised who will be issued ‘police cards’ after complete verification. “Ninety nine beats officers are being appointed to keep a liaison with the committee members,” the IGP said.

“The committee members will be allocated streets and mohallas to gather information about suspicious activities in their respective areas to further share the information with the beat officers through SMS,” Khan said.

He said that it was encouraging that thousands of people especially youth applied for representation in these committees.

“The police and the committee members will make every possible effort to make the city more secure,” Khan said.

Meanwhile, Temuri said that the security audit of 422 schools and colleges has been completed. He said that 34 DSPs and inspectors have been appointed for giving lectures to students and staff during assembly sessions to increase their level of preparation for possible attacks.

He added that the security alert system has also been provided to all education institutes to deal with any unfortunate incident.

Published in The Express Tribune, January 12^th, 2015.