Humiliation, arrest of innocent damage force’s image

Khyber Pakhtunkhwa Police

Officers set up units, posts to release the innocent

PESHAWAR: After facing severe criticism from the general public over the arrest and humiliation of people during the recent search operations, a few police officers have introduced mobile interrogation units and forward command posts to release the innocent civilians without taking them to the police stations.

There has been uproar all over the province for quite some time over the arrest of hundreds of innocent civilians, raiding their houses and insulting their families during search operations on the pretext of looking for the suspected terrorists. Many people were also concerned about snap checking at various places in the cities.

“Now, we make a central command post at a specific point during every search operation where all those arrested are brought. The concerned police officers, intelligence officials, local elders and elected representatives sit there and clear innocent people who are released immediately,” District Police Officer Mardan, Faisal Shehzad, told The News.

He added that the cops had been directed to respect the public and not to enter the houses of innocent people.“I have directed all the officers not to go after maximum number of suspects but only arrest those who are proclaimed offenders or involved in any kind of crime or terrorism,” Faisal Shehzad added.

Thousands of people have been arrested, humiliated and their houses raided all over Khyber Pakhtunkhwa during the last many months although they had nothing to do with crime or terrorism. They were released only after the local elites interfered and approached the police bosses. Still they were released by the cops as if they were extending a favour to those recommending the release of the persons in police custody.

A police official said that they normally arrested up to 100 people during a search operation and most are released within a couple of hours. Around 30 to 50 people are shown arrested during every search operation while releasing their progress to the media.

Some of the police officers even expressed their reservations over the search operations in the province. Some suggested that the number should be reduced if these are really necessary to give some relief to the public as well as the already overburdened cops. They also suggested that the operations should be headed by local officers aware of the local traditions and culture.

A district police officer, however, defended the search operations.“The search operations give a message to the terrorists that their safe havens are not safe anymore. In search operations, the police have even recovered suicide jackets from garbage. This showed that the miscreants had to run in fear,” stated DPO Kohat, Sohaib Ashraf. However, he admitted that the arrest of innocent people should be avoided.

According to the data provided by the Central Police Office, around 44,800 suspects were rounded up in 55,424 search and strike operations all over the province after the attack on the Army Public School Peshawar. Interestingly, the figure shows that the number of arrested suspects is less than the number of operations. The police authorities claim the arrest of dozens of people when issuing press release after a search operation.

Besides, 100,120 suspects were reportedly held in snap checking at 51,142 points during the last one year. The total arrests only during the search operations and snap checking surpasses 145,000 and if all or majority of them were terrorists, criminals or troublemakers, complete and durable peace would have returned to the province by now.

The arrest of the innocent people and their humiliation during the operation and later in the police stations has resulted in a number of protests in various parts of the province in the recent months.

“In a Pakhtun society, the arrest of an innocent or his humiliation in the public is something unforgivable. Those carrying out search operations are losing sympathy of the people after the arrest of innocent people in an area,” said an elder. He added that the intelligence-based operations can be more effective.

Inspector General of Police (IGP) Nasir Khan Durrani said the police officers had been directed to respect the general public during the search operations and snap checking.“This is a warlike situation and we have to take some unpleasant steps for the larger national interest. During these operations, we have arrested a large number of militants and target killers and recovered explosives,” said IGP.

He added that the number of complaints had gone down after directives were issued to the cops to respect the general public. The IGP argued that some most wanted terrorists were arrested and huge quantity of explosives recovered during these operations.