Pakistan bomb disposal unit has 70pc vacancy rate
Bomb disposal squad in Peshawar short 70pc of staff as officers risk their lives daily defusing explosive devices for low pay and long hours
A technician from Pakistan's top bomb disposal unit packed some ageing detonator cord confiscated from the Taliban into a plastic water bottle and reached for a roll of sticky tape.
With his low-cost, improvised - and extremely dangerous - device he demonstrated how he destroys militant bombs, but also revealed desperate shortages of money and equipment for Pakistan's overworked bomb disposal experts.
Twelve years into the war on militancy, Pakistan's police are chronically underfunded. This year's federal budget gave the military about US$6 billion and the police US$686 million, a lopsided allocation mirrored in the disbursement of foreign aid.
While the US has given Pakistan about US$30 billion since 2001, the police have got a tiny fraction compared with the military. A little of that reached the country's top police bomb disposal unit in Peshawar.
Peshawar, the historic gateway to the Khyber Pass and Afghanistan, has been a target of the militants time and again.
The city's bomb squad has defused more than 5,000 devices since 2009, from child suicide bombers to big trucks packed with explosives. Shafqat Malik has led the unit for four years.