Taking lead over other provinces, the law enforcement agencies in Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa (KP) have arrested more than 20,141 suspects during various intelligence based operations launched since the approval of the National Action Plan (NAP) against terrorism, it was learnt.
An official of Ministry of Interior told Business Recorder that KP government's arrest record was followed by Azad Jammu and Kashmir's 9,000, Sindh 7,442, Balochistan 3,450 and Punjab 2,870. As many as 844 suspects have been booked from the federal capital and over 200 from Gilgit-Baltistan during the last three months.
He said the number of people arrested by the LEAs included a small number of die hard terrorists or people with links to terrorist organisations.
Analysts maintained that the number of arrests was not indicative of the success/failure of the provincial government towards implementation of NAP, as there was nothing concrete on the ground.
Air Vice Marshall Shahid Latif (retd), while talking to Business Recorder, said the government needed to keep its focus on the implementation of 18 points of NAP, as arrest of suspects would not have a far reaching impact.
"Government has so far taken no steps to build capacity of police and other LEAs across the country, judiciary and registration of seminaries," he said.
He suggested that the government should focus on capacity building of LEAs, and set up effective intelligence gathering system to ensure better coordination among intelligence agencies within two years to combat terrorism.
Afzal Ali Shegri, former Inspector General Sindh, said LEAs in Sindh had arrested many hardcore terrorists due to effective operation conducted by Rangers therefore other provinces also needed to keep their focus on the arrest of terrorists and their sympathizers instead of arresting Afghans or those who failed to prove their identification.
He said that following the launch of operation Zarb-e-Azb by the army in tribal areas, terrorist activities in the country had been curtailed to a large extent but the ongoing operation would bear fruit only when 'our civil law enforcement agencies are able to implement NAP in letter and spirit'.
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