AJK govt decides to establish CTD, anti-riots police units

MUZAFFARABAD: The Azad Jammu and Kashmir (AJK) government has decided to establish counter-terrorism department (CTD) and anti-riots police units with specialised training and modern equipment to cater the rising need in maintaining law and order, said Inspector General Police (IGP) Rana Abdul Jabbar here.

Talking to a group of senior journalists at his office, the IGP said that the anti-riots police unit comprising on 500 personnel were being trained by Punjab anti-riots police trainers who had been trained by Turkish trainers in the past.

Rana said that the AJK police was lacking in this field and need was felt after recent riots happened in May this year in the region after that government decided to create its own specialized anti-riots unit to tackle such events on professional basis.

He said younger police men of age ranging between 20 to 30 years and physically fit had been selected from all the police ranges for this specialized job and they will be kept for their original task rather indulging them in other policing duties.

“The anti-riots police will be deployed at three divisional headquarters under the administrative control of Deputy Inspector General (DIG) police, he added saying that Superintendents of Police (SPs) were also being trained through short workshops about how to deploy and use these units during the public protests.

He said Prime Minister Anwar Ul Haq had very graciously sanctioned the amount to purchase the necessary equipment for this specialized anti-riots unit besides granting approval for recruiting some 1,000 additional police men to cater the rising requirement for an affective policing.

Rana further informed that the government had also decided to establish CTD for the defined purposes and new recruitments will be made for this unit through third party evaluation as the qualifications and standards for CTD are different and their salaries and remunerations will be higher than the common police man due to their tough and risky job.

He said that besides improving police, more measures were being taken to ensure security and safety of the people including safe city projects in three cities Muzaffarabad, Mirpur and Rawalakot of the region.

The IGP said cameras and digital equipment will also be installed at police check posts and main entries to AJK to ensure the transparency in police dealing beside the security purposes and the project will be completed within 3 months.

He said AJK was comparatively peaceful region in the country however; enemy was always looking the opportunities to take advantage of even minor internal issue to portray the region as frustrated for nefarious interests and advised the people of the region to be aware of such nefarious designs.

READ: AJK protests: Clash erupts between protesters, Rangers

The IGP was of the view that there was only a minute involvement of some foreign elements during the recent public agitation in the region and investigations were underway to tackle this disclosing that some social media accounts involved in propagating false information had been operated from out of the country.

He said that the AJK police was responsible for the security of all foreign nationals residing in the region including the chines people working on different projects and additional forces were deployed on need basis which was a common practice in the region and other parts of the country as civil armed forces had always been deployed during the elections and other extraordinary activity.