In a first, female cop posted as additional SHO in Kurram

• Sofia Masih posted as additional moharar in same station. 
• Other women also being trained, says Kurram DPO. 
• No other woman cop could become, SHO or SDPO in past.

PESHAWAR: For the first time ever, the Kurram police have posted a female, Samreen Amir, as the first additional station house officer (Ad-SHO), The News reported Wednesday. 

This is the first time any woman police officer has been posted as an additional SHO in any former tribal area of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa (KP). Furthermore, another woman has been posted as an additional moharar. 

“Samreen Amir has been posted as the additional SHO of the Parachinar police station in [the] Kurram district. We have also posted another woman, Sofia, as an additional moharar in the same police station," said Imran Mirza, Kurram district police officer (DPO), while speaking to The News. 

Sofia Masih was earlier posted as the in-charge of the women’s desk in Kurram a couple of years back.

The Kurram DPO said that, apart from these two women, other policewomen in the district are also being trained so they can take part in regular police work more effectively.

This development is significant for the former tribal districts as there are not many women posted as SHOs even in the settled districts of KP, including Peshawar. 

Only one woman was posted as acting SHO — that too, for a few days — in the Gulberg police station in Peshawar. 

No other woman cop from the province recruited as a constable or assistant sub-inspector could become an SHO or sub-divisional officer in any KP town in the past. Some of these women have now reached the rank of superintendent of police.

A few women from the police service, however, remained SDPOs as well as district police officers in KP. A Police Service of Pakistan (PSP) officer, Sonia Shamroz, is currently serving as the DPO in Battagram in the Hazara region.