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Database to hunt terrorists planned

Posted on: Wed July 27, 2011

ISLAMABAD - A high-level meeting on law and order in the Ministry of Interior Tuesday decided to develop database to track terrorists that would be available to police as well as all law enforcement agencies (LEAs) and to constitute an inter-provincial response force for the help of all provinces when needed.

Federal Secretary Interior, all provincial home secretaries as well as Inspector Generals of Police (IGPs), Chief Commissioner, Islamabad, IGP Islamabad, Director General (DG) National Crisis Management Cell (NCMC) and representatives of Rangers, FC and intelligence agencies attended the meeting. Interior Minister Rehman Malik chaired the meeting that was held to review law and order situation in the country.

National Database and Registration Authority (Nadra) would develop database of terrorists as well as criminals and make tree of their family members that would be available to the police throughout the country as well as all law enforcement agencies (LEAs).

A meeting of civilian and military law enforcement agencies in the last month had all ready decided that Nadra would form and maintain a database on terrorists. Earlier, the various government departments at provincial and central levels were maintaining data of terrorists for their own use and it has become very difficult for LEAs to check the identity of any terrorist or a suicide bomber in case of any terrorist activity.

The meeting decided that special branch of police for all the provinces would be interconnected to share data on the terrorists enabling each province to benefit from the investigations of other provinces. Nadra will provide the networking facilities.

The meeting also decided in principle to constitute an inter-provincial response force that would remain present in each province and will be placed at the disposal of the requesting province to handle emergencies, disasters etc. A committee comprising of additional IGPs of all provinces and IG Islamabad Capital Territory (ICT) as its members and headed by Federal Secretary Interior will make terms of reference (TORs) for the constitution of this force and submit its recommendations to the Ministry of Interior.

During the meeting, IGP Sindh briefed the participants about the present ongoing law and order situation in Karachi. A spokesman of the ministry said that participants observed that the hostile elements were trying to engineer ethnic and sectarian clashes in Karachi as tussle of certain political groups was going on there to take over certain areas. It was decided that nobody in Karachi would be allowed to divide the society on ethnicity basis. The participants urged the need that metropolitan city is needed to be deweaponized and it was proposed that the govt might legislate to deweaponise the whole country.

The Interior Minister observed that stolen cars were a major instrument in the hands of terrorists to commit acts of violence and crimes, a press release issued by the ministry says. The minister directed the chairman Nadra to devise and design software for vehicle tracking mechanism, which once is operationalised, shall greatly inhabit and restrict not only thefts of cars but also contain terrorist s activity.

In the meeting, it was decided that each province will raise a special provincial force to guard dignitaries, diplomats and delegates from abroad that will free the regular police force and law enforcement personal of such duties and they could remain available for their regular duties.

In the meeting, Chairman Pakistan Telecommunication Authority (PTA) was directed to report updated figures of unauthorized SIMs blocked so far.

It was also decided that all the old arms licenses would be renewed according to the new ID of the license holder and it would come into force on January 01, 2012.

The meeting also discussed amendments in Anti Terrorism Act (ATA) and Interior Minister directed its ministry to expedite its clearance and approval from the legislature.

The participants discussed that the movement of foreigners was being checked thoroughly by the police and a check would be maintained on anti-state elements through respective SHOs and special branch in all the provinces. The next such meeting will be held in Karachi, by rotation.

Courtesy : Nation