Islamabad police to revamp CTD, set up Violent Extremism Prevention Unit

The Islamabad capital police have decided to revamp the Counter Terrorism Department (CTD) and set up a Violent Extremism Prevention Unit to curb menace of terrorism, a police public relations officer said on Monday.

He said that the Inspector General of Police (IGP) Islamabad Dr. Akbar Nasir Khan has decided to revamp the CTD as per the vision of Prime Minister of Islamic Republic of Pakistan Muhammad Shehbaz Sharif and following the directions of Minister for Interior Rana Sana Ullah Khan. SP Kamran Aamir Khan has been appointed as incharge of this department and it would have a new ‘Violent Extremism Prevention Unit’ which will be the first of its kind in Pakistan. It will prepare its action plan by reviewing the political, linguistic and religious extremism content on social media or other websites.

The CTD would have Operations and Intelligence Wings while the newly established “Violent Extremism Prevention Unit” would be supervised by SP. IGP Islamabad said that teams of Islamabad Capital Police will go to educational institutions and religious seminaries (madrasas) and conduct lectures/ measures to prevent extremism.

The unit will also monitor sermons in mosques while it will review the political, linguistic, and religiously extremist content on social media as well as websites and submit its report, besides identifying crimes related to extremism the police and CTD will work together and take prompt action against such elements.