ISLAMABAD; Federal Interior Minister Mohsin Naqvi announced on Wednesday that the bulletproof vehicles earlier allocated to Khyber Pakhtunkhwa (KP) will now be sent to Balochistan to support the province’s counterterrorism operations.
In a post on social media platform X (formerly Twitter), Naqvi said the decision had been made to redirect the vehicles originally meant for KP to Balochistan, citing the need to strengthen the security apparatus there.
He lauded the sacrifices made by Balochistan’s security forces and police in combating terrorism and said that the addition of bulletproof vehicles would further enhance their efficiency and safety during operations.
Naqvi’s announcement came after Balochistan Chief Minister Sarfraz Bugti highlighted that, similar to KP, Balochistan had also suffered greatly from terrorism and urgently required better protection equipment to conduct effective security operations.
Bugti added that the provincial government was prioritising citizens’ safety and had intensified security measures to tackle the growing threat of militancy.
Earlier this week, Naqvi had handed over three bulletproof vehicles to the KP police. However, newly elected KP Chief Minister Sohail Afridi refused to accept them, directing the police to return the vehicles to the federal government, claiming they were substandard.
Afridi said his government would procure new vehicles and provide additional resources to the police using provincial funds. Official sources, however, maintained that the vehicles, though not new, were fully operational and suitable for field deployment.
