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Sunday, June 13, 2010
KP government doubles security spending in 2010-11 budgetPESHAWAR: The Khyber Pakhtunkhwa government has increased its security budget by over 117% for the year 2010-11 in order to deal with the threat posed by the Taliban insurgency. Finance Minister Muhammad Humayun Khan presented the 2010-11 budget in the provincial assembly on Saturday. The government has now allocated Rs 21 billion to increase the number of police personnel and to equip them with the latest weapons. The amount will also be used to construct more police stations and to set-up a communication system to effectively deal with militants. “The existing law and order situation has greatly increased government expenditure. Despite having limited resources, we have allocated adequate funds to the police,” Humayun Khan told provincial lawmakers during the budget session. Last year, only Rs 10 billion were provided to the police force. The Khyber Pakhtunkhwa government has also increased the number of police personnel by over 40 percent during the last two years. The province has been the hardest hit by violence and 2,199 civilians and security personnel have been killed since 2007. There were a total of 112 suicide attacks during the period as well, while 632 improvised explosive devices were also used against civilians as well as security personnel. Officials claim 3,219 militants were either killed or captured during the period, while a huge quantity of arms and ammunition was also seized. staff report
Courtesy www.dailytimes.com.pk