Khyber Pakhtunkhwa Minister for Information, Mian Iftikhar Hussain on Monday said the strength of police has been doubled from 40,000 to 80,000 and we made it a semi military force by equipping it with latest weapons to compete with the threat of militancy.
He stated this while speaking here at Chief Ministers House at oath taking ceremony of the newly elected cabinet of Peshawar Press Club. Chief Minister, Ameer Haider Khan Hoti and Secretary Information, Azmat Hanif Orakzai were also present Elaborating, Mian Iftikhar Hussain said that in two years the ANP government doubled the strength of police personnel in the province and equipped it with latest weapons besides providing it training on military lines. "Today we can rightly call police a semi military force as it was imparted a tough training to cater to the security needs," he said. In view of the great sacrifices rendered by the police against the ongoing war on terror the package for the shaheed cops has been raised to Rs 3 million.
The Information Minister said that terrorism was the problem of the entire region and every segment of society was adversely affected by it. He said that terrorists were neither Pukhtoons, nor Punjabis and Sindhi as they do not have any creed or race.
He said that insurgency yet existed but due to the efforts of the government and the law enforcement agencies its intensity has been lessening. Mian Iftikhar reiterated that roots of terrorism were in Afghanistan and called for co-ordinated efforts among the intelligence services of Pakistan, Afghanistan and United States to root out the menace. He said that trust deficit in the stakeholders was yielding negative impact on the war on terror and underscored the need for building of trust in Afghanistan, Pakistan and US to frustrate the evil designs of terrorists.