Peshawar: An insecure metropolis

Eleven men of Shinwari tribe who had shifted from Khyber Agency and taken permanent residence in Faqir Kaley village were kidnapped in broad daylight on the morning of Saturday March 15 by twelve militants who had crossed over from the adjacent tribal area in two vehicles. The Fakir Kaley village is situated on the edges of Peshawar city.

The abduction has a story behind it: The kidnapped men had previously received warnings and were threatened of dire consequences if they either did not join the militants or pay three thousand rupees per month each. Secondly, the warning was not the first of its kind. Such threats have been made by the militants before to the people in that very same area but, mostly. to the tribesmen who had shifted from Fata. Thirdly, the armed militants crossed over from the tribal area in two vehicles. It cannot be that the militants did not drive by a check post and even more so that they took the abducted men in the same vehicles and crossed back into the tribal area passing by, again, in front of the check post manned both by the police and FC men. How could they have come and then gone back along with the abducted men and remained undetected; it is a question that needs to be inquired into. The police and FC officials, who were patrolling the area jointly, as a matter of routine, argued that because the scared locals did not inform them at the time of the incident, they did not intervene.

The excuse by the law enforcement men is outrageous. If they were not aware of the background situation, which was common knowledge in the area, and did not make special arrangements to ward it off, then the question is that what kind of law enforcement men were they and were they even fit to work in this department.

The abduction and the law enforcement agencies' argument for not stopping the militants, bring forth the many misgivings that the general public all along had regarding the reasons of ineffective law enforcement in and around the metropolis. The taking of eleven individuals from their homes by force in itself is a time consuming and huge crime. It is shocking, especially, when the scene of the crime is so near the capital city. The failure of the special arrangements, like joint patrol by police and FC, made to specifically prevent such extraordinary crimes, adds to the insecurity of the ordinary people. Adding insult to injury is the excuse of the cops and FC men that the scared locals did not informed them. In fact it is the failure of the law enforcers that the citizens are scared even in their presence.

There never are policemen posted on every nook and corner of every street anywhere. All police forces throughout the world have informers who update the cops not just on crimes currently taking place but of the crimes in the making. The question is why were there no informers in these areas and if there were; why did they not inform.

The heads of the law enforcing agencies should take stock of the situation. Obviously, their claims regarding foolproof security arrangements were based on the plans which looked perfect on paper but left much to be desired when it came to implementing the same. A lot of these crimes are happening because the lower staff members that have to face the bullets are left unsupervised. It is now commonly believed that policemen hesitate to get involved in face off with the militants for the obvious reason that they are not actively backed by their officers.

There hardly is any on-the-ground check by the highly placed officers to see that their orders are implemented in letter and spirit. The high-ups in the law enforcement agencies, it seems, are unaware that many of their field officers, instead of fighting insurgents, have adopted the attitude of coexistence towards the militants.

In times such as these, we just do not need excellent strategy planners; we also need brave officers who lead their men by examples of bravery. That seems missing. The Khyber Pakhtunkhwa IG police Nasir Khan Durrani is a very able and brave officer but he has to take some time out of the massive paper work that has bogged him down. He and his immediate assistant officers needs to start making surprise visits of the many check posts and try to find out the location of many police companies roving in their mobile vans and supposed to be making tours of the areas under their jurisdiction. He may be in for some rude shocks as during his visits he may find the many contradictions between what is on the paper and what is happening on the ground.

As to the case of this particular abduction, IGP Durrani should hold an inquiry and dismiss all those responsible for not being able to stop a crime which was so much expected to happen.