Will a Counterterrorism Force Work?

At a time when civilian Law Enforcement Agencies (LEAs) need to have very clear aims and objectives and concentrate on security and curbing terrorism in Pakistan, Punjab Police is compelled to divorce its main counterterrorism unit.

Designers have decided to transfer the Counter Terrorism Department (CTD) from Central Police office and place it under the Home Department of the province. It is feared that de-linking it from Police and placing under bureaucracy may please the ‘concerned quarters’ but will be a wastage of time, energy and public money.

CTD had seven wings including intelligence, operation, investigation, prosecution, research & analysis and technical. CTD had four police stations’ one each in Lahore, Faisalabad, Multan and Rawalpindi. The department was provided with Elite Force teams to bring down high-value terrorists. The Punjab police and CTD had established Joint Investigation Teams (JITs) to deal with terrorism cases. Each of these JITs comprised a CTD inspector and an inspector or DSP of the local Police. Despite huge budget, human resources and lucrative perks and privileges, the CTD has failed to achieve its objective which led to the abolishing of this department.

If we examine the ‘National Plan’, it is interesting to note that there is no CTF for FATA. If such efforts are afoot, these are not shared with the people of Pakistan. Administration is working without a professional law and order arm as the Levies and Khasadars are nowhere near to professional standards of Police.

Khyber Pakhtunkhwa is going to recruit 25000 officers. All is set! Numbers seem to justify the demand but capacity to raise this huge force within a short time is a serious question. Professional training of this large CTF by the state institutions will at least require few years. Only four training centers in KP will not be able to get the desired results. Outsourcing cannot be an option.

There is no noise about CTF in 95% of the A area in Balochistan. Nevertheless, Balochistan Police should be deployed all over Balochistan with a strong CTF like KP without any distinction of A and B areas.

In Sindh, the CTF will be 10,000-strong. Criminal Investigation Department is already functioning. There is little clarity about future functioning i.e. investigations, prosecution and intelligence, of proposed CTF.

Islamabad Capitol Territory Police (ICTP) has already developed ‘Crisis Response Teams’ and this 30-men unit is capable enough to respond to any threat. ICTP has the mandate to guard diplomats and national VVIPs. Therefore, capacity constraints should be overcome to meet the commitments of the government.
In Punjab, only 500 personnel is the strength of proposed CTF with minimum salary of Rs. 75000/- and huge resources. It is being said that helicopters will also be at their disposal too.

An intelligence report recently prepared by the Punjab’s Counter Terrorism Department (CTD) revealed that 2,487 militants trained in Afghanistan and 556 militants released from Afghan prisons are now active in the Punjabi Taliban Network.

The surveillance of such a huge number of militants will be a daunting task for CTD no matter how technically advanced it is. It is also claimed that the culture of this highly-paid CTD will be different from that of Police. Apparently, it is considered that high salary and amalgam of individuals from the proverbially inefficient public departments is a key to change in working culture of a civilian law enforcement arm of the state. Interesting!

On the website of Chief Minister of Punjab it was highlighted that:
‘the Counter Terrorism Department (CTD) was established in 2009 to combat terrorism.’ (However, Punjab Police website says 2010!)

Quick Response Force has been created with the assistance of the Pakistan Army to counter terrorism.

4,329 criminal gangs and 145,748 proclaimed offenders have been prosecuted in Punjab and 76,310 fugitives have been arrested. Moreover, 46 police officers embraced martyrdom in the war against terror.

If all this is true then why this separation of CTD and developing another silo of CTF? One of the answers lies in visibility and popularity attached to CTF.

Because of its mandate, it’s the focus of international donor agencies and many diplomatic villas in Islamabad. UK, Germany, USA, Australia, Canada, Japan, EU and many UN agencies are eager to support CT efforts in Pakistan. Many projects are underway in almost all provinces of the country and their assistance is helping Pakistani civilian LEAs in capacity-building at astronomical costs.

CTD was supposed to continue the efforts to curb terrorism keeping an eye on existing trends in terrorism and working in coordination with Police and other agencies. A force of 170,000 police officers and their information-picking methods are helping CTD and other intelligence agencies including Special Branch, IB, MI and ISI. Surveillance of Afghan-trained personnel and released prisoner is possible only with the help of local Police and under unified command in the offices of IGPs. With least interaction and disintegrated command and control of these specialized units within the Police, the effectiveness of CTF will be jeopardized.

This debate on CTF does not inform us about scope and coverage of this novel endeavour. There is no clarity about this National CTF and haze is getting thicker on the strategic objective and possible benefits of CTF. Moreover, the timing of this effort is also not appropriate because, on one hand, talks with terrorists are being preferred while on the other, a CTF campaign is being launched. Confusion is further compounded.