Intelligence Aspects in Police Basic Training and Countering Terrorism in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, Pakistan

IntroductionPolice is the first respondents in all the civil disorders, related to any violation of law (Dahl, 2010). Police personnel instead of dealing with traditional street crimes, has recently started to deal with more sophisticated, organized and diverse form of crimes i.e. countering terrorism. In the ongoing terrorist activities inside Pakistan that have started after the event of September 11, 2001, police personnel now requires some sort of special training to enhance their intelligence, related specifically to counter terrorism. But the intelligence level of police is not so praiseworthy for tackling terrorism and controlling insurgency in terrorism affected areas.In Pakistan, the issue of terrorism is one of the hotly debated topic in debates and it poses a serious problem for the state at national and international levels (Quraishi, 2002). Terrorism is a crime and it should be responded accordingly. Police in Pakistan are the first victims of every terrorist activity and increasing terrorist activities raises many questions on the intelligence of police which affects their performance. According to Ras (2010), Police personnel are properly trained at the time of their entry into police force. They are taught basic laws, especially PPC, Qanoon-e-Shahadat, CRPC and other basic laws. They also get physical training. Ortmeier (2006) contends that various in-service trainings are also offered to police personnel, which are also mandatory for their promotion. However, all these training are related to tackling with crimes, such as murder, theft and robbery etc. But intelligence aspects of police training are often ignored. The training system for the police is also outdated. Keeping in view the present challenge of countering terrorism, Police intelligence system are fail to tackle the problem of terrorism.Pakistan plunged into a new era of war against terror without being any psychological readiness. In Pre 9/11, police in Pakistan had not faced such kind of terrorist activities and they also did not have capacity to cope with them. In this new context they do not have proper intelligence related trainings, modern communication system to trace the terrorists and knowledge of terrorist motives behind terrorism etc. Moreover, fighting against terrorism needs to understand and implement new and updated intelligence training in police basic training. In Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, police reportedly lacks both of them to counter terrorism. Same is the situation of the police forces in other provinces of Pakistan.Literature ReviewIntelligence is the backbone in almost all the western world in modern policing. Originally Intelligence-Led-Policing (ILP) was articulated as a law enforcement operational strategy that wanted to decrease crime through the combined use of crime analysis and criminal intelligence in order to determine crime reduction tactics. Ratcliffe (2008) ILP approach stress on the information gathering through the wide use of secret informants. ILP is a type where criminal intelligence and data analysis are very important to an objective and decision making framework. It is a model of policing that facilitates crime and problem reduction through strategic management and effective enforcement strategies for targeting serious offenders.ILP was originated in United Kingdom and the basic purpose behind its origination was that police personnel was spending too much time in responding to crime and very little time to target the offenders. Newburn (2008) argued that ILP involves developing and maintaining an up-to-date and detail picture of crime and criminality in order to intervene to disrupt effectively terrorist networks and to remove prolific offenders. For this purpose a structure to elicit information and its interpretation, staffing and procedures are required to act on it rapidly and scientifically. With proper information and surveillance system, police can be more effective in fighting crimes. …