Common name Balochistan Police Preceding agency Provincial Police Legal jurisdiction Balochistan | Formed 1946 Employees 38,000 | |
Legal personality Governmental: Government agency | ||
Balochistan Police is responsible for policing urban Balochistan, Pakistan. Its strength was 38000 as of 2014. The current Inspector General of Police, Balochistan is Ahsan Mehboob.
Contents
Law enforcement in Balochistan
Balochistan Police is responsible for the law and order situation in mostly urban areas only, which are called A areas. This division has been in place, in various forms, since the time of the British Raj. Balochistan's rural areas, called B areas, are policed by the Balochistan Levies. The Frontier Corps operates in both areas. This division is seen as a severe handicap by the police as criminals based outside their limited area of jurisdiction can easily plan attacks and run away.
The distinction was eliminated by Musharraf, however, it was brought back by the PPP government of 2008 under CM Balochistan Aslam Raisani. The frequent swings in policy obviously do not allow institution-building and hurt the agencies' abilities to deal with crime.
Nature of Crime
Since Pakistan's post 9/11 involvement in the war on terror, the nature of crime in Balochistan has substantially. Over the last decade, targeted killings, kidnappings for ransom, terrorist attacks, especially sectarian in nature, have risen substantially. For example, in 2013 there were many huge bomb blasts targeting the Hazara community in Quetta as well. htm as various attacks on the police including senior officials.
2008 - 2013 PPP Rule
PPP formed a government in Balochistan and ruled in a coalition with Nawab Aslam Raisani as Chief Minister. Aslam Raisana chose Humayan Joegazai as CCPO Quetta, who was known to have close links with lashkar-e-Jhangvi. During the start of his career, he ordered policemen to fire live rounds at Hazara protesters. 25 innocent civilians were killed. He was brought back to Quetta by Raisani and during his tenure, things once again took a turn for the worse, particularly for the Hazara community.
Improvement in 2014
The number of terrorist attacks dropped from 205 in 2013 to 154 in 2014 (a 25 percent decline) and the number of people killed in terrorist attacks fell from around 350 in 2013 to 48 in 2014 (an 86 percent decline).
Current IGP Balochistan
Ahsan Mehboob is a 10th Common, Grade-22 Police Service of Pakistan officer.