This refers to the news story, ‘Why counter terror strategy fails in Karachi’ (February 4) by Mazhar Abbas. Karachi is facing the worst kind of terrorism for the last three decades but the security situation in the provincial metropolis worsened after 9/11. Unfortunately, law-enforcement agencies in the country were neither trained, nor equipped to tackle the menace of terrorism. In Sindh, especially in Karachi, the number of police personnel was quite less compared to the size of the population. In order to deal with crime, terrorism and violence, the federal and Sindh governments initiated a targeted operation in Karachi from September 5, 2013. The operation was across-the-board and jointly conducted by the Karachi police and the Sindh Rangers. Both the forces have offered many sacrifices and also achieved much success during the last 17 months while the operation also helped the Karachi police to learn from its mistakes, shortcomings and achievements.
At the moment, the Karachi police, which was trained to deal with ordinary crimes, has lost over 250 personnel and officers but it has not bowed before the terrorists and gangsters and continued its operations and activities with the same zeal and dedication. Due to the sacrifices, strategy and hard work of the Karachi police, the number of targeted killings, explosions, kidnappings for ransom and extortion has come down to a large extent. As far as the counterterror strategy in Karachi is concerned, former military personnel were recruited in the police and they have been deployed in District West and Lyari, where the police is fighting against armed militants and organised gangsters. Meanwhile, plans are under consideration to provide counterterrorism training to the existing police force with the help of the Pakistan Army to improve their performance in the fight against crime and terrorism in Karachi. There is no doubt that the Karachi police is facing an extreme shortage of manpower. Compared
to the required 60,000 personnel, it has 27,000 personnel at its disposal and a major portion of the force is also unavailable due to security responsibilities. Out of this force, approximately 8,000 men are deployed in security units, the HQs and on VIP security while the demand is much more. But those available for operational jobs are fighting hard to restore peace and maintain law and order in the largest city of the country.
Karachi Police
Government of Sindh