Daily Times

To ensure peaceful conduct of the general election in Peshawar, the Home Department Khyber Pakhtunkhwa and police have decided to deploy 5819 police personnel at polling stations on the election day.

According to the joint plan of KP Home Dept and police, in Peshawar a total of 1280 polling stations will be established, of which 577 have been declared very sensitive while 655 as sensitive and 48 as normal.

According to the Home Dept KP on Thursday, a police force consisting of 2885 personnel will be deployed at very sensitive polling stations while at sensitive polling stations, a force of 2620 personnel and at normal polling stations 144 police personnel will be deployed. Besides, 1170 lady police will also perform duty at the polling stations. It said at a normal polling station, three police officials will perform duty while at the sensitive polling station, four police personnel and at every sensitive polling station, five policemen will perform duty.

The Home Department said an increase in the number of police personnel at very sensitive and sensitive polling stations was being mulled adding at the mentioned 100 hot spots police personnel with special secret cameras will be deployed to cope with any untoward situation.

The final inspection of arrangements for polling will be considered by the Election Commission and special teams will be formed for this purpose. At subdivision level a monitoring system and focal persons will also be deployed.

The sensitive and very sensitive polling stations would be monitored through the CCTV cameras while some of the police personnel will have secret cameras on their uniform.

Health contingency: The health department has finalized health contingency plan to deal with any emergency situation during the upcoming elections.

Under the plan it has been decided to establish a control room comprising of doctors and paramedics in the control room. A staff of 10 doctors would be on duty in the control room on February 8, while five doctors would perform duties in the control room on February 9. Emergency would be declared in all the public sector hospitals in all districts during the days of general elections.

All the district health officers in the districts have been directed to coordinate with the concerned administration. Under the plan the health department would also coordinate with Rescue 1122 to deal with any emergency situation.

PEW set up: The Home and Tribal Affair department, Khyber Pakhtunkhwa has set up a “Provincial Election Workspace” (PEW) in its strategy and Analysis wing to observe the overall situation in the general election 2024.

A notification issued here by the Home department said that representatives of BPS-17 and above of at-least 12 departments would perform duties in the PEW.

These departments included Home and Tribal Affairs, HQ-11 Corps, Peshawar, Police, Rescue-1122, Health, CTD KP, IB, Special Branch, PTA, Information, PMRU and Local government. The workspace would work round the clock with immediate effect to February 7. Any information related to the elections could be communicated to PEW at phone numbers; 091-9214033, 9223470 and email: saw3470@gmail.com.

Security Cameras: Khyber Pakhtunkhwa police have decided to install over 10,000 security camera at the most sensitive polling stations across the province.

According to police, some 4143 polling stations in the province have been declared highly sensitive, while 6166 polling stations have been declared sensitive. The government has already approved the installation of CCTV cameras at sensitive and most sensitive polling stations.

According to the security plan, one camera each would be installed outside and inside the sensitive polling station while three cameras would be installed at the most sensitive polling station. Cameras already installed in government schools would be fixed and activated before the polling day, said the police.

CCTV footage: The district police claimed to have found CCTV footage of the killing of police constable Asadullah in the Hashtnagri area of Peshawar.

According to the police, two unknown persons riding on a bike shot at the police constable on GT road in Hashtangari and managed to escape the scene. Police have registered a case of terrorism against the unknown persons involved in the killing.

However, the police have not yet ascertained whether the attack was an act of terrorism or the result of personal enmity.

Spurious Drugs: Anti Corruption Circle Peshawar, Federal Investigation Agency, on Thursday arrested two accused for selling spurious and unregistered medicines in the market.

The accused identified as Shamsur Rehman and Shafiullah were taken into custody along with the stock of unregistered and spurious drugs.

FIA has registered cases against them and started investigation, said FIA spokesman.

Hundi business: In major crackdowns by FIA Commercial Banking Circle against Hundi business, five suspects were held on Thursday.

The arrested accused were identified as Muhammad Isa Khan, Rahatullah, Tawheed Muhammad, Yasir Wasim and Ahmed Shah.

The accused were arrested from Qamber Bazar and Timargarha, district Lower Dir. During the raids, domestic and foreign currency worth more than Rs 2.4 million including 7400 Saudi Riyals, 300 UAE Dirhams and 100 US Dollars were recovered from the accused.

Record related to hundi reference was also recovered.

A case has been registered against the accused, while further investigation was underway by FIA.