‘Cops and minority sects facing threat of target killing in Karachi’

A recent meeting on Karachi’s law and order situation was told that police officials and members of minority sects in the city were faced with threats of target killings.

The meeting was also told that police officials and members of the Shia community in upper Sindh’s districts were faced with threats of suicide attacks and improvised explosive device explosions.

Convened in Karachi, the meeting was attended by officials of the law enforcement agencies, including the Counter Terrorism Department (CTD), and the intelligence agencies to discuss threat perception and policies to counter the threats.

CTD Karachi chief DIG Amir Farooqi informed the meeting that the strength of the Sindh police was divided between six police ranges: Karachi, Hyderabad, Shaheed Benazirabad, Mirpurkhas, Sukkur and Larkana.

He said that with 30 police districts and 583 police stations throughout the province, there was just one official for every 410 citizens, adding that the alarming situation warranted more recruitments.

DIG Farooqi said the working strength of the CTD Sindh was 778 personnel, 500 newly recruited assistant sub-inspectors and 1,000 personnel for the Counter Terrorism Force.

He added that due to the department’s operations across the province, the number of slain police officials had been decreasing: 183 in 2014, 90 in 2015, 41 in 2016 and six in the current year.

He said the operations had resulted in the arrests of 1,789 terrorists, including 284 of the Tehreek-e-Taliban Pakistan (TTP), 15 of al Qaeda and 35 of al Qaeda in the Indian Subcontinent, as well as militants associated with the Sipah-e-Sahaba Pakistan (SSP), the Sipah-e-Mohammad Pakistan (SMP) and nationalists groups.

The CTD Karachi chief told The News later that the meeting had also discussed the security situation in Sindh, including the intelligence and joint interrogation reports on 94 madrasas that were investigated.

He said active terrorist groups in Sindh, including Karachi, were Jamaatul Ahrar, the TTP’s Swati, Punjabi and Geedar groups, al Qaeda, the SSP, the Lashkar-e-Jhangvi (LeJ), the SMP, Jundullah, the Islamic State (commonly known as Daesh) and militant wings of political and nationalist parties.

Referring to the threats in Karachi and upper Sindh, DIG Farooqi said a nexus of terrorist groups was behind them, comprising the LeJ, the TTP and al Qaeda, which were operating out of Balochistan.

He added that the TTP’s infrastructure and capabilities had been eroded due to the military’s Operation Zarb-e-Azb and the Rangers-led Karachi operation. “They have largely been eradicated from the localities that were formerly under their control.”

Regarding the LeJ, he said that their largest faction, the Naeem Bokhari group, had been almost eliminated, adding that while their ability to conduct massive attacks had been mitigated, the LeJ retained a large support network and cadres in Karachi, and they were most likely to either merge with other groups, such as Daesh, or create independent splinter cells.

“In interior Sindh, the LeJ is increasingly active, operating largely through a network of veterans of Afghan training camps and their families, such as the Hafeez Brohi network. The ability, especially of the Brohis, to move freely across the Sindh-Balochistan border means that they can transport explosive materials and suicide bombers without hindrance.”

DIG Farooqi said that if the groups had joined hands and were receiving financial support from Daesh, as was assessed by most intelligence agencies, then their capability was likely to be improved and an escalation in attacks in upper Sindh could be expected.

“They are likely to continue targeting members of the Shia community, Sufi shrines and political personalities. Attacks on venues like Garhi Khuda Bux can’t also be ruled out.”

He said that while Daesh did not have a formal command & control structure in Pakistan, it appeared that in Sindh they preferred to act through either the Lashkar-e-Jhangvi al Almi, with whom it had made a strategic alliance in Kandahar, or by co-opting local LeJ factions such as the Hafeez Brohi network.

“While these individuals will have lower capabilities than established terrorist groups, they will likely come from more educated backgrounds, and thus will be more innovative in planning terror attacks.”

The CTD Karachi chief said that after discussing threat perception, they had moved forward, adding that major initiatives were taken, such as madrasa reforms, denial of cyber space and coming up with counter-narratives. “For legal reforms, we are focusing on police reforms and forming military courts.”

Regarding sharing of intelligence, he said joint directorates of intelligence at central and provincial levels should be formed, and movement across the borders, especially that of Afghanistan, should be regulated. He also stressed on expediting the registration process of unregistered aliens in Karachi in large numbers, such as people of Afghan, Tajik, Uzbek, Burmese and Bangladeshi origins.