Akhtar Hayat Gandapur appointed KP IG

PESHAWAR: The federal government on Thursday appointed Akhtar Hayat Gandapur as Inspector General of Police, Khyber Pakhtunkhwa. He replaced Moazzam Jah Ansari.

The Khyber Pakhtunkhwa government had recommended the names of three senior police officers for posting as IGP during the interim set-up.

“The names of three senior officers Akhtar Hayat Gandapur, Saeed Wazir and Dr Sohail Habib Tajik were sent to the federal government and the Establishment Division for posting one of them as IGP KP,” a source told The News.

Akhtar Hayat is the senior-most among the three officers, belonging to the 22nd Common Training Programme (CTP) of the Police Service of Pakistan. He was serving as additional director general in the Federal Investigation Agency. He has also served as DIG in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, Balochistan and other forces.

Before the posting, the three senior police officers were interviewed by the prime minister to find a suitable IGP. Later, the caretaker chief minister also interviewed two of the officers as one could not make it due to his engagements.

This has ended the uncertainty if the police command in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa was being changed during the interim set up or not.

In Punjab, the chief secretary and IGP were changed last month after the provincial assembly was dissolved and a caretaker setup was installed. A number of district and regional heads of police and administration in Punjab were also changed in the last few days.

In Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, the chief secretary was changed a few days back while the IGP was not named till Thursday.

A number of officers were considered by the federal government, political leadership of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa and others concerned in past weeks for posting of IGP.

The KP Police are currently facing the main challenge of increasing terrorist attacks, especially against the force. The biggest attack on the police force was on January 30 when a suicide blast martyred 84 policemen and injured over 200 others. The force needs morale boosting after this tragic attack.

The force has successfully repulsed many attacks in Peshawar and other parts of the province in the last many weeks.

Security experts believe that the new IGP and his deputies are required to aggressively go after the terrorists, ensure merit in posting in all the regions, districts and wings and refuse any political interference in the affairs of the force.

They added that apart from boosting the morale of officers in the field, the police chief will have to take up the issue of lack of resources, manpower in remote districts, police stations and posts that have witnessed attacks in the last many months.

As many as 119 policemen were martyred in attacks during the last year. During the first month of the current year, 82 policemen were martyred and over 200 were wounded in one single incident in the police headquarters of Peshawar.