DNS Report
Khyber Pakhtunkhwa (KPK) province has been the biggest victim of terrorism for the past two decades.
Its law enforcement agencies have played a prominent role in this fight and the Pakistan Army and other security agencies have achieved numerous successes. However, local law enforcement agencies, especially the Counter-Terrorism Department (CTD), still lack resources and government attention. Is the KPK government intentionally not working to improve its CTD to check terrorism due to its alleged nexus with terror outfits such as TTP (officially known as Khawarji) or it is an issue of incompetency of the ruling elite of the province? It may be remembered that the PTI government in 2022 invited terrorists back to Pakistan from Afghanistan and former prime minister Imran Khan officially announced his project of resettling terrorists in Pakistan. For his soft corner for TTP terrorists, Imran Khan has been named ‘Taliban Khan’ by European as well as local media.
The attack on the Bannu CTD police station in December 2022 exposed these weaknesses, where the absence of basic infrastructure raised serious questions.
The federal government provided Khyber Pakhtunkhwa with about Rs 500 billion from 2010 to 2024 for the fight against terrorism. In the first nine months of the fiscal year 2023-24 alone, Rs 56 billion was given to the province, but these funds were not spent on capacity building of the CTD.
In addition, the strength of the Khyber Pakhtunkhwa CTD was 2,135 in 2022. In view of the criticism since the Bannu attack, according to the latest figures, the Khyber Pakhtunkhwa CTD has a staff strength of 4,430, including cooks, clerks and drivers. This number is by no means sufficient to deal with the terrorism threats present in the province.
There are several issues hindering the effective functioning of the Khyber Pakhtunkhwa Counter-Terrorism Department (CTD), the major one of which is the non-posting of Police Service of Pakistan (PSP) cadre officers by the provincial government to the CTD.
Since 2022, the CTD had only one senior officer serving as the acting DIG, while the Punjab CTD has about 18 senior officers and two DIGs from the PSP cadre.
After repeated requests from the military, the eight Superintendents of Police were recommended for the Khyber Pakhtunkhwa CTD in 2023, which is still short of the challenges facing the province.
The Khyber Pakhtunkhwa CTD department is in dire need of modern counter-terrorism training. No training program has been conducted for the CTD Khyber Pakhtunkhwa during the last two years, nor has any grant been released for this purpose.
Moreover, the Khyber Pakhtunkhwa CTD has only Rs 25 million for the ‘reward fund’, while the Punjab CTD has Rs 276 million. The Khyber Pakhtunkhwa CTD also depends on Punjab for its data forensics. The Khyber Pakhtunkhwa CTD is far behind financially and administratively compared to the CTDs of Punjab and Sindh. The martyrs package is 150 percent less than other provinces, which discourages employees, and corruption issues are negatively affecting the performance of the institution.
According to statistics, the highest number of terrorism cases are in Balochistan (34 percent) and Khyber Pakhtunkhwa (32 percent), but the ratio of verdicts and convictions in these cases is very low. One of the reasons for this is the weak investigation of the CTD and its low capacity due to the low strength of personnel. The Pakistan Army provided modern headquarters and other facilities to the CTD in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, but due to insufficient resources, these measures could not yield the desired results.
The provincial government’s lack of interest in the CTD and corruption is such that an advertisement was given for recruitment in the CTD – thousands of people submitted applications by submitting a fee, which collected Rs 20 million and later the recruitment was canceled. Such cancellation of recruitment is a high-profile example of mismanagement and corruption.
The current weaknesses of the CTD in the province that has suffered the most in the war on terrorism are worrying. Security forces are taking effective action against terrorists, but the weaknesses of the CTD allow terrorists to regroup.
Law enforcement and maintaining law and order are primarily the responsibility of the local administration and police, but the Khyber Pakhtunkhwa government appears to be failing to fulfill this responsibility. Urgent and effective measures are needed at this time to enhance the functionality of the Khyber Pakhtunkhwa CTD. This threat can be addressed only through modern technology, better financial resources, and professional training of staff. If these aspects are ignored, it will be difficult to control the growing threats of terrorism.
