Peshawar: Provincial Cabinet of Khyber Pukhtunkhwa on Tuesday referred the issue of withdrawal of armed forces from Malakand division to the apex committee which will adopt a strategy for the withdrawal of forces from Malakand.
Briefing media about the cabinet decision provincial minister for information Mian Iftikhar Hussain said that until attacks from Afghanistan side continue presence of forces in Malakand will be necessary and could not be withdrawn completely.
From many parts of Malakand like Buner, Shangla, Kalam and Bahrain forces had already been retrieved and replaced by the police therefore armed forces will not be kept in area where there will be no need of their presence.
“home secretary briefed cabinet about the law and order situation in the province while withdrawal of forces was also discussed in the cabinet after thoroughly discussion the issue has been referred in to the apex committee” Mian Iftikhar said.
To strengthen police force many suggestion had also been discussed and it was decided to divide Malakand region for police in to two regions. Region one will include Swat, Shangla and Buner while region-II will be included of Timergara, Upper Dir and Chitral, he said.
Mian Iftikhar said that IGP Khyber Pukhtunkhwa had also suggested restructuring of special branch, FRP and Telecom police besides remove weakness in investigation as well as further improve the standard of forensic laboratory .
Answering a question, Mian Iftikhar said there were certain flaws in the investigation and existing laws which usually favours the terrorists
as only 4% of the terrorists had been awarded penalties.
To yet another question, Mian Iftikhar said the brunt of terrorists attacks had been faced by the people of Khyber Pukhtunkhwa as 173 terrorists attacks had been occurred in this province. He said as new trend surge in attacks against police and politicians had been recorded.