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New Frontier police chief faces Taliban challenge

By Iqbal Khattak

PESHAWAR: The new police chief of NWFP, Sharif Virk, will face a difficult time trying to stop the Taliban extending their influence over districts in the province and abolish the notorious ‘thana culture’, observers say.

Mr Virk takes charge as local Taliban have extended their sway to Darra Adam Khel, a tribal town just 30 miles from Peshawar. A Daily Times investigation based on interviews with officials dealing with tribal areas and tribal elders in several regions reveals that the frontier regions of Dera Ismail Khan, Tank, Bannu, Lakki Marwat and Kohat have also been “taken over” by the Taliban.

“Because of the takeover of frontier regions, the Taliban influence extends to settled areas of Dera Ismail Khan, Tank, Bannu, Lakki Marwat and Kohat districts and there the police have failed on many counts,” said a police official who served in one of the affected districts, wishing not to be named.

Administratively, the frontier regions are regarded as “soft targets” for the Taliban since neither the police nor paramilitary force are deployed there in normal peacetime.

The Taliban are performing the police job particularly in Tank city, close to the border with South Waziristan, arresting criminals and parading them through the streets in front of the public.

“Such moves by the Taliban serve two purposes. First, they show the people that they can perform better than the police. Second, such a humiliation has a strong psychological effect on the common man,” the police official said.

Darra Adam Khel is particularly important as the town manufactures lots of weapons that can be sent to fighters in Waziristan, and is close to the provincial metropolis.

“They (Taliban) are in control of Darra Adam Khel now and they must be trying to hook themselves up with like-minded people in Peshawar to extend their influence to the provincial metropolis,” said a resident of Darra Adam Khel who is associated with an NGO.

Upon arrival in Darra Adam Khel, the Taliban have terrorised music and video shop owners, non-governmental organisations and girls’ schools with bomb blasts.

Official reports suggest the Taliban in Darra Adam Khel have a direct link with the Taliban in North Waziristan, where they are sending young recruits for training, while weapons are being supplied to militants in North Waziristan from Darra Adam Khel. Some time ago, the military seized weapons near Kohat that it said were being transported to militants in North Waziristan from Darra Adam Khel.

In the north of the province, the situation does not look good as jihadis are spreading across Malakand region and moving up to Hindukush Mountains in Chitral district.

Officials blamed the growing influence of the Taliban beyond North and South Waziristan on the police failure to stop the “Talibanisation” of settled areas.

‘Thana culture’, a reference to police misbehaviour with citizens in police stations, means people don’t trust the police, and this, coupled with the near-collapse of the justice delivery system, will play into the hands of the Taliban, warned a retired police official.

“Where law and order and justice vanish there the Taliban emerge and the public response is positive because the people want protection irrespective of who provides it,” he added. Mr Virk must fight on the two fronts– the Taliban and the thana culture – simultaneously. Observers say the new police chief is knowledgeable about the area and all that remains to be seen is his determination to take on the two major problems the Frontier province is faced with.

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