Saudi- Female cops to see IDs of women at checkpoints

(MENAFN- Arab News) The highway security has started deploying women officers on the Kingdom's roads to check the identity documents of female passengers in a bid to apprehend terrorists and criminals disguised as females.

'We'll stop and inspect suspicious vehicles carrying female passengers. If they do not allow men officers to inspect the vehicle we'll call women officers to do so' Maj. Gen. Khaled Al-Qahtani commander of the force said on Thursday.

'Apart from ensuring the safety of highway traffic we are authorized to catch criminals and terrorists who sometimes wear female clothing to hide and mislead security officers' he said.

Al-Qahtani also warned Saudis and residents to stop making changes to the insides of their vehicles to accommodate more people or for sleeping because such alterations could cause accidents.

'We have noticed these changes in vehicles carrying women teachers that were involved in accidents that caused fatalities' he said.

Several women teachers have died in recent days. In the first week of this month two teachers and their driver died in an accident on Madinah-Qassim Road. Three other teachers sustained serious injuries.

It was the third such accident in less than a week. A woman teacher died and five others were injured in the first accident on Tabuk Road while five women teachers suffered injuries in the second accident in Yanbu.