Pakistan

Capacity building: Budget raise expected for law enforcement agencies

Third batch of Counter Terrorism Force being trained, says Shuja Khanzada .

Our Correspondent May 03, 2015

This was announced by Home Minister Shuja Khanzada during an interview on Sunday. PHOTO: ZAHOORUL HAQ/EXPRESS

LAHORE:

The government is planning to increase the budget for law enforcement agencies in order to develop logistic support, provide modern weaponry and improve infrastructure for their capacity building.

This was announced by Home Minister Shuja Khanzada during an interview on Sunday.

The minister said the upcoming budget would have greater provisions for the capacity building of law enforcement agencies. This will be necessary in order to effectively curb terrorism and to enable law enforcers to nab terrorists and wanted criminals, he said.

The government’s measures, so far, have enabled law enforcers to decrease crime in the province up to 30 per cent. Part of this drop can be attributed to the government’s “no tolerance” policy against acts of terror, extremism and other heinous crimes, said the minister.

“We have ensured strict surveillance of high-risk individuals…those who break the law will be brought to book,” Khanzada said. The third batch of the Counter Terrorism Force is being trained, he said.

He said special focus will be paid to capacity building of the Special Branch and the Crime Investigation Department. The chief minister had sanctioned Rs5 billion especially for capacity building of the police, he said.

“We will eliminate the cancer of terrorism in the near future.”

The minister said as many as 14,858 cases have been filed against terrorists and their abettors between January and May and 15,688 suspects were arrested in connection with those cases. He said police had presented challans of 961 cases in courts and verdicts had been passed against 1,025 people.

The minister said law enforcement agencies had also nabbed 810 people suspected of militant activities in the province belonging to banned terrorist organisations including the Tehreek-i-Taliban, Lashkar-i-Jhangvi, Ahle Sunnat Wal Jamaat and Sipah-i-Sahaba.

Published in The Express Tribune, May 4^th, 2015.