IDSP-Pakistan analysis: The dauntless heroes of NWFP Police —Farhat Taj
March 1, 2010analysis: The dauntless heroes of NWFP Police —Farhat Taj
Courtesy to "Daily Times"
The public perceive the police as as much an innocent casualty as
the innocent civilians in the state’s pursuit of strategic goals in
Afghanistan. They see an ethnic discrimination behind the lack of
equipment, and training of the police
A considerable public
perception in the NWFP puts an alarming ethnic perspective on the
rising police casualties in the province. They note that the police
disproportionally suffer more casualties than the army in the province.
They observe that public entry into the cantonments is restricted, thus
enhancing the security of the army in there, whereas the policemen are
left dangerously vulnerable to terrorist attacks. They resent the lack
of weapons and training in the police and compare it all the time with
that in the army. They ask why the army must have better security
arrangements and not the police, especially when the latter is much
more vulnerable to terrorist attacks than the army?
The people
question how come the intelligence agencies are able to provide advance
information on terror attacks? This means they know the whereabouts of
the terrorists. They ask why the intelligence agencies are not striking
them in their hideouts and wait till they come into the cities and
towns to kill policemen and civilians.
It should be kept in mind
that NWFP policemen have invited dangers upon themselves in the line of
duty to the state. It is not a good sign for the integrity of our
country that the Pakhtun public perceives some ethnic discrimination on
behalf of the state against the police. The perceived discrimination is
an extension of the wider perception in NWFP and FATA that the Pakhtun,
both civilians and police, are paying with their blood for the military
generals’ pursuit of strategic depth in Afghanistan.
The NWFP
police are the first line of defence against the onslaught of the
terrorists. Almost on a daily basis they defend hundreds of civilians
by giving their own lives. They are doing so most of the time with
their will power and commitment to duty. According to the NWFP police
department, 523 police personnel have been killed and 1,083 injured
between 2004 and 2009 in the war on terror.
Some people also
inform that in terms of modern equipment for intelligence, the NWFP
police are completely dependent on the IB and ISI. This dependency
varies from case to case and on the relations between the heads of the
departments. These people suggest that a powerful way to dilute the
public perception of state-sponsored ethnic discrimination against the
NWFP police is that the Special Branch of NWFP police should be
provided with modern intelligence equipment like that of the IB and ISI
to counter terrorism in an efficient manner, reduce the police
casualties and also provide better security to the public.
I had
a chance to talk to the relatives of some of the martyred policemen.
They died in exchanges of fire with militants, explosions caused by
remote controlled improvised explosive devices (IEDs), and suicide
bombings. The key question I asked them all was: what — in terms of
weapons, tools, training or any other thing that your relative
policeman lacked — would have saved his life or at least could reduce
the number of casualties among the police?
They all referred to
jammers and scanners. The jammers given to the NWFP police often do not
work. The son of a martyred policeman said: “The jammer would heat up
the engine so much that the vehicle would refuse to move. To keep the
vehicle going, the jammer had to be turned off.” The uncle of a
martyred policeman said that all policemen guarding check posts must be
given powerful scanners. He informed that official vehicles provided to
ministers have scanners that can detect explosive material within a
radius of one kilometre. He said all the policemen must be provided
with such scanners, especially those on duty in sensitive places and
check posts.
Some of the relatives informed that the tools of
communication given to the police, like wireless sets, are not only
useless but also dangerous. Anyone, including the terrorists, can
intercept communications among policemen sent out through these
wireless sets. This, they said, mortally endangers their security in
combat situations when policemen send out important messages to their
colleagues outside the combat area and these are accessed by the
terrorists. The Pakistan Army has much better tools of communication.
The same tools must be given to the policemen as well.
Everyone
said the terrorists have much more advanced weapons than the policemen.
They said there is an urgent need to give the NWFP police sophisticated
weapons and train them how to use these weapons. The son of a martyred
policeman said the militants who attacked the police patrol, including
his father, had rocket launchers and the policemen had only machine
guns. He said his father had never been trained to use rocket
launchers. He informed that new police recruits have been trained in
the use of rocket launchers, but not those who joined the police force
before the war on terror.
The police have extremely unusual duty
timings. Children of a martyred policeman said they would see their
father only once in a couple of weeks and that too for an hour or so,
even though their father’s place of duty and their home are at the same
place, Peshawar. This is because the police force is short of manpower,
they said.
Some relatives pointed out the difference in
compensation given by the government to the families of those who were
martyred before and after June 2009. The latter have a much better
compensation package than the former. Relatives of the former said they
are happy for the better compensation to the latter, but wanted similar
compensation.
One of the relatives said he has been doing some
calculations for some time and has come to the conclusion that in pure
financial terms, it is cheaper for the government to provide the police
with better weapons and tools than the compensation paid to the
families of the martyred. This, he said, is also a much better deal for
the families who wish to see their near and dear ones in the police
alive rather than being compensated for their deaths.
All the
relatives are in high spirits and believe the terrorists would be
defeated. The public, however, perceive the police as as much an
innocent casualty as the innocent civilians in the state’s pursuit of
strategic goals in Afghanistan. Thus there is an urgent need to
immediately provide the NWFP police with all the weapons, tools and
training that they may need to deal with the terrorists.
The
writer is a research fellow at the Centre for Interdisciplinary Gender
Research, University of Oslo, and a member of Aryana Institute for
Regional Research and Advocacy. She can be reached at bergen34@yahoo.co
Posted by ADP. Posted In : Farhat Taj
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