Daily Times

The gallant efforts of the local police in deterring the terrorists at Charsaddah University before reinforcements arrived has once again highlighted the importance of the police force in combating terrorism. Without the valiant efforts of the local police, who not only resisted the advance of the terrorists (some reports say they actually killed two of them), the casualties could have been much higher. This again highlights the importance of local police forces. Local police are the best personnel to prevent terror attacks by combating terrorists, using the basic principles of policing, including patrolling, information gathering and surveillance of suspects of the area concerned. They are the appropriate persons to find and investigate local terrorist threats, and they can work to neutralise sleeper cells and ensure that vulnerable targets in their jurisdictions are protected. There is no substitute for the policeman who walks the streets. He is the gatherer of intelligence, the enforcer of the law, the preventer of the offence, the investigator of the crime and the standard bearer of the authority of the state all rolled into one. If he is not there, it means that all these functions are not being performed.

Patrolling is a central aspect of policing and constant patrolling by police forces establishes an official presence that enhances security and builds confidence in people. The police have to opt for compassionate patrols in the daytime, which become covert at night and track specific suspects, terror groups or sleeper cells. Specifically during terror alerts, to deter terror attacks, the police have to inundate the area with a number of small patrol groups working in unison to focus on specific targets.

The best source of information can be gathered from the local police stations across the country. In any plan for a terrorist attack, vital information that may forewarn a future attack may result from facts gathered by local police personnel in the course of routine law enforcement functions. For detecting the early activities of terrorists, gathering intelligence through the human intelligence (HUMINT) sources of local police is the primary source with respect to any specified or sensitive area or person.

Under the jurisdiction of a police station, officers like the Station House Officer (SHO), sub-inspectors and police constables have an everyday presence in their concerned area. They know the people in their area by their castes and professions, and they have an idea of villages or parts of their city, and local leaders, members of assembly and parliament. They always have the opportunity to communicate regularly with local residents and business people, street vendors, hawkers, etc, and are aware of minute and fragile changes in the locality under their jurisdiction.

As police know the local area and its people, they are at the forefront of developing primary deterrent capabilities to prevent terror attacks. To foster such capacity and competence the police forces in Pakistan might have to make considerable changes in their operating practices to fight against terrorism by adopting methods such as intelligence-led policing (ILP) and community policing, models followed by the UK and other jurisdictions. The focal point of the ILP model of policing is based on the identification, analysis and supervision of existing and approaching terror threats in the future.

Though some of the concepts are quite complicated, in its simplest form community policing is when some police constables are allocated to a particular area so that they can hang about there for a period of time, be acquainted with the locals and talk to them about local problems and suspicious persons. Such inputs in their jurisdiction could be used to get intelligence, which offers the best probability of preventing and deterring future forms of terror attacks. As mentioned, there might be many models but in a very simple form, an assistant sub-inspector and one or two constables in every police beat could be exclusively devoted to monitor community policing, and they should not be burdened with any other work.

Even though intelligence inputs are disseminated to the police force in the field, it does not necessarily convert into action by the deployment of enough police personnel in the sensitive areas to undertake surveillance activities and to protect susceptible targets. Lack of sufficient manpower and resources is slowing down and obstructing heavy new responsibilities of the Pakistan police in dealing with terror related activites that have significantly increased the workload of police forces already engaged in hectic work schedules.

Most of the resources of a provincial police department go towards salaries and, despite some up scaling of police resources, they are still grossly inadequate. The ratio of one police officer for every 700 citizens is highly inadequate by any standard, and in mega cities like Karachi it rises to 1,400 for every citizen. Consequently, to address the menace of terrorism and to prevent terror activities effectively and efficiently in every area in Pakistan there must be more police stations and professionally trained police officers. At the top there is an imperative need to reshuffle the police forces by posting young and newly recruited officers trained in tactics and technology in critical wings of the police dealing with terrorism. The Counter Terrorism Departments (CTDs) in every police force are one such force that should be strengthened.

Undoubtedly, local police are the primary source to keep terror groups off balance and keep the population reassured by neutralising terror activities and attacks. However, shortage of visibility and response is damaging policing, and despite success stories like Bacha Khan University, the police are becoming ineffective in preventing terror related attacks and sleeper cell activities. Under such existing constraints, where the police not only have to put up with meagre resources but also political interference, intimidation and patronage, things may not work optimally. In this time of national crisis, it is necessary not only for the politicians not to interfere in police responsiveness to terror activities, but also the need for rapid expansion of police forces with a modern outlook.

The writer is a retired Inspector General of Police and ex-head of Pakistan’s National Counter-Terrorism Authority