FIA building still vulnerable to terror activity

LAHORE
THE commanders of the Federal Investigation Agency (FIA) have yet to learn a lesson from the deadly attack on its provincial headquarters happened seven years back as the building and its security paraphernalia are still vulnerable to any terrorist activity.
Due to the bombing, the eight-storey building of the FIA was razed down completely and it also caused devastation to an area of about one kilometer radius. The famous Regal Cinema also could not avoid the scar of the blast as its building had been shattered. The cinema has been closed down since then.
Due to ill-security arrangements by the quarters concerned after the March attack, the same building was targeted again by terrorists in October 2009 in which at least seven more FIA personnel lost their lives.
Other than the relocation of the FIA’s Special Investigation Unit (SIU) formed to interrogate terrorists which was also said to be the main reason behind the attack, from the Temple Road’s building nothing much had been changed vis-à-vis security even after the passage of exactly seven years since the tragic incident had occurred.
After the deadly terrorists’ attacks, even the devastated building has not been reconstructed as yet as promised by the then PPP government. Reportedly, the then Interior Minister Rehman Malik even went on to say that plots would also be given to all the victim families of the FIA but it remained a daydream for those unfortunate families who lost their loved ones in the line of duty on the early morning of March, 2008.
Even the incumbent federal government of the PML-N has not released a single penny for the construction of the building which suggests how much the government is serious about the working and the capacity building of the FIA, an FIA official commented on Wednesday.
He shared that now a foreign agency was funding for the construction of the building and the work would be started in the coming few weeks.
Another FIA official, seeking anonymity, shared that terror still haunted the FIA building as no proper security arrangements had been put in place. There should be more vigilance of the FIA building after the launch of the National Action Plan, he added. He also shared that very recently a foreign funding agency had provided CCTV cameras to the FIA but security staff still lacking other key security equipments including the walkthrough gates.
There is a walkthrough gate but sometimes it becomes dysfunctional, he claimed. He also drew attention towards the fact that other than a couple of men, there was no female police personnel at the entrance of the main gate which could cause unbearable human loss. “We should deploy some female security personnel (at least one) at the main gate of the FIA building to keep a female suicide bomber away”, he maintained.
An FIA official, who had lost his younger brother in 2008 blast, wishing anonymity, told The News on Wednesday that Rehman Malik had made a promise to provide them with plots but even after the passage of seven years nothing had been done in this regard. He said the government should not make such promises which could not be fulfilled.
When contacted on Wednesday, Director FIA Punjab (Lahore Zone) Dr Usman Anwar told The News that after the formal launch of the NAP, things, particularly vis-à-vis security arrangements, had been improved. “We are more satisfied as we have installed CCTV cameras and walkthrough gates with the financial assistance of the United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime (UNoDC)”. We have also improved our vigilance, both in uniform and civvies around the building, he maintained.
To a question, Dr Usman said the federal government had prepared a PC-I of the FIA building but things had not been moved ahead from that particular point. He also shared that by taking revolutionary step, the incumbent federal government had introduced Shuhada Package for the FIA employees which was being practised only in the police in the past.