spokesman of the Sindh police for official response the reply was quite confusing. “I think there is some litigation or also some other reasons.” When asked how much weapons are available to the police and of what kind, he said, “This is classified information.”
However, he was kind enough to provide information about the exact strength of the police force and the budget sanctioned last year. They must be looking for big increase in the next financial year. Where the money had been spent and how, is another story for some other day.
There is also some mystery about some foreign contracts for arms ordered about a year back, for which nominal payments were made. These include some 5,000 M-4 rifles, each costing 1400 USD, 10,000 Colt pistols and 20,000 bulletproof helmets etc. Police sources said there are some ‘technical’ problems in these contracts.
There are also some standard procedures in the police department for the use of weapons like which officer or official could use which weapon except in emergency cases.
What is more interesting is the strength of police mobiles and the amount of money spend on their “repair,” almost every second months.
There are some 7,500 police mobiles and 400 new mobiles were also ordered last year. Where are these new mobiles? Are they ready, and if so, where are they parked? Secondly, how many police mobiles are on VIPs duty? How many of them are in the personal use of police officers? Why we still see sub-standard police mobiles on roads? Why is there not enough money for petrol or diesel?
The question is: can you fight a war against terrorism in such a scenario? One must give credit to the police for fighting the battle along with the Rangers. But is the demand for more money to purchase weapons justified? What about the arms they have ordered for? Why this delay in receiving the consignments? Is this not a case of gross mismanagement?
There is said to be lack of coordination between the Rangers and the police and it is said that the latter did not take the former into confidence over the arrest of some of the wanted terrorists in the recent high-profile killings including the massacre of 47 Ismaili and killing of human rights activist Sabeen Mahmood. In the recent operations there were no coordination between the police and Rangers and both carried out operations on their own.
Syed Qaim Ali Shah, who is captain of the ongoing operation, needs proper briefing before he presents Sindh’s case for more arms to Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif.
The writer is a senior analyst and columnist of Geo, The News and Jang