Peshawar - The Khyber Pakhtunkhwa government on Wednesday raised a special patrolling squad of police titled as Abbabeel Squad to further improve the overall law and order situation in the provincial capital and effectively prevent street crimes in the city through effective and smart policing. 

Chief Minister Khyber Pakhtunkhwa Mahmood Khan formally launched the Abbabeel Squad in a function held here in the Police Line. Initially, the squad will consist of 800 specially trained police personnel and 200 customised motorbikes for round the clock patrolling throughout the city.  

The distinctly uniformed Abbabeel Squad will be equipped with modern communication devices, body cameras, drone cameras and other technological gadgets for smart surveillance. The squad will be connected to a central control room through wireless communication system.  

The entire city has been divided into 100 different beats for patrolling purpose, and two-rider squads will simultaneously be patrolling each beat. Later on, 800 more personnel and 200 more motorbikes will be added to the Abbabeel Squad. 

Addressing the launching ceremony as chief guest, Mahmood Khan congratulated the senior police officials for raising up the special squad. He said that this is the need of the hour due to city’s growing population and raising rate of street crimes. He said that special squad would have great impact on the overall law and order situation in the city and will be helpful to effectively prevent the street crimes.  

Mahmood Khan said that it was also desperately needed to maintain law and order situation during the upcoming local bodies elections. The Chief Minister said that in next phase, Abbabeel Squad would be rolled out to divisional headquarters and district headquarters as well. “This is another important step of the provincial government after launching of Asaan Insaaf Marakaz and Police Madadgar to improve policing in the province. 

Lauding the role of KP police in war against terrorism, maintaining law and order and protection of citizens in the province, the Chief Minister said that KP police personnel have rendered great sacrifices and offered their lives to protect the citizens during war against terrorism.  

“The government and people of the province are proud of their police,” he said and hoped that police would continue to serve the citizens with the same spirit and enthusiasm in future as well. The Chief Minister assured that the government would extend all-out support to police for the purpose.  

He urged upon senior police officials to introduce a mechanism of reward and punishment to make “Abbabeel Squad” a successful and an effective force adding that officials with good performance be rewarded and officials with poor performance should be held accountable. 

Provincial Minister Shoukat Yousafzai, Special Assistant to Chief Minister for Information Barrister Muhammad Ali Saif, Chief Secretary Shahzad Bangash, Inspector General Police Muzzam Jah Ansaari, CCPO Peshawar Ahsan Abbasi and other senior police officials also attended the ceremony.  

Earlier, IG Police briefed the participants about the purpose and salient features of Abbabeel Squad. 

Meanwhile, talking to media representatives, the Chief Minister said that progress on safe city project for Peshawar was also underway, adding that a suitable land has already been identified and project management unit has been established for the purpose.  

Responding to a question about the recent wave of inflation in the country, he said that inflation was not a problem only in Pakistan rather it was a global phenomenon. However, he said, the government under the leadership of Prime Minister Imran Khan was taking result-oriented steps like Rashan Card, Kissan Card and Sehat Card initiatives to give maximum relief to the general public in the recent wave of inflation.  

About local bodies election, Mahmood Khan said that he and his cabinet members being in power could not run election campaign but on the other hand opposition people were free of such limitations and they are running campaigns for their candidates openly.