Military Review English Edition November December 2016 | Page 43

COIN IN PAKISTAN operations, and TSNM founder and ideologue Sufi Mohammad was booked under sedition charges after the police registered thirteen cases against him.17 The military did not leave the area, but administration was handed over to the civilian authorities. The police thus played an important ro le in the “transfer” and “shape” stages of the COIN campaign. In addition, during the Malakand military operations, the police were responsible for securing and maintaining the internally displaced people camps, which were established in the adjacent districts, as many of the TTP rank-and-file had taken refuge there. Federally Administered Tribal Areas (2004–2009) Between 2004 and 2009, during the height of the Islamist insurgency in FATA’s Khyber District, the police thwarted numerous direct attacks on civilian and military installations in Peshawar City. The KPK government was even considering shifting the provincial capital from Peshawar to Abbottabad because MILITARY REVIEW  November-December 2016 Training officers of the Special Security Unit attend a field briefing 30 November 2015 at the Shaheed Benazir Bhutto Police Training School, Razzakabad, Karachi, Pakistan. (Photo by Farhan Zahid) of the proximity of Peshawar to the tribal areas from where the Islamist militants were launching their attacks.18 Police had taken the primary responsibility of securing the access points to Peshawar in order to check the movement of TTP militants. In response to this security arrangement, the TTP beheaded a number of police officers patrolling the area in the outskirts of Peshawar.19 Two superintendents of police were killed while on duty. Superintendent of Police Khurshid Khan was leading a patrol when he was surrounded and beheaded by the TTP militants on the spot in October 2012, whereas Abdul Kalam Khan was killed in a suicide bombing in March 2012.20 Since the police had no jurisdiction in the tribal areas, the insurgents took full advantage of this by using these areas for strategic depth, moving back and forth into Peshawar from the tribal areas. 41