...... throughout all our travels around the globe, the tightest & mandatory security we felt and given to us was in Peshawar, and its nearby regions.
Our initial reaction was utterly apprehensive & surprised; we thought Peshawar was like the big city of Islamabad - free movements and uninhibited roaming. But then we hadn't paid attention to Peshawar being near the border of Afghanistan and is also surrounded by tribal lands of different Shia & Sunni divides.
Hence, to keep us safe, we required security escorts throughout Khyber Pakhtunkhwa (KPK) that includes our time in Peshawar, Khyber Pass in Jamrud, Mardan and the Swat region of Malam Jabba.
These are the areas where the police escorts rendered to us were excellent; in particular exceptionally professional were those men from Peshawar.
And we remembered them fondly still.
The police in Mardan & Jamrud were also very protective of us - and when we were in Swat & Malam Jabba, likewise did they looked after us well.
.......we appreciate every bit of their efforts to escort & keep us in good hands whilst allowing us enjoying every trip and tour we had while there around in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa (KPK).
******
We cannot say that all those policemen we encountered in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa (KPK) and also in Multan or other parts of Pakistan were as great as well; some, honestly, disappointed us.
But our hearts truly remembered those who really were out there keeping us, and other tourists, safe while in Pakistan.
Since it's SAF Day today, my mind drifted and extended to those men, albeit not in the traditional camo green but rather in black top from Peshawar and the surrounding regions - to those men that keep the land safe for us to visit Pakistan.
They gave us a new dimension about security in a land that could erupt anytime into unpredictable kidnapping or whatever international attention it entails; they gave us an insight of work in keeping the land intact despite all the depressing challenges of potential tribal in-fightings, the never ending corruption issues, potential arms violence, and so on.
They were our guardian angels: To them, we owed a great thank you.
They deserve respect, and as much a decent & nice treatment from us not to make their uniform lives harder than what they're already putting up with daily in their lives as people that provide security to us.
We now have become travellers who are familiar with armed escorts - we now know in heart what it means for them to keep us safe throughout our visit to their country elsewhere too.
Should we be in Afghanistan, Somalia, Ethiopia, Mali, Sudan, Libya, Eritrea and other places any sooner in the future that require armed escorts, then the experience in Pakistan had built that mental & psychological bases for us to be prepared and be at ease with that kind of security setting."
~ 𝗧𝗵𝗲 𝗪𝗮𝗻𝗱𝗲𝗿𝗶𝗻𝗴 𝗠𝗼𝗼𝘀𝗲 𝗔𝗱𝘃𝗲𝗻𝘁𝘂𝗿𝗲𝘀©
𝗢𝗻𝗲 𝗟𝗶𝗳𝗲 | 𝗧𝗮𝗸𝗲 𝗜𝘁 - 𝗟𝗶𝘃𝗲 𝗜𝘁
🖤🖤🌹🌹🖤🖤
