Victims or saviours?

In our desperate law and order situation, we clearly need our law enforcers to rise up to the huge challenge they face, and rescue us from the criminals who have overtaken so much of our lives. But what can one do or say when these law enforcers themselves fall victim to the gangs stalking our country? How can they save us when they cannot protect themselves? This is a question that needs answers, notably from the government leaders who have been telling us that police and other security personnel have been placed on high alert to combat crime. Perhaps the seven policemen, including an ASI, kidnapped from their check-post at Ubauro near Rahimyar Khan did not know about this security high alert. The 30 to 40 heavily armed dacoits who took them away on Sunday and then released them a day later certainly seemed to face few obstacles as they completed their mission. There is no evidence of serious resistance. The policemen were rescued on Monday after a large-scale operation was launched. Ironically, the kidnapped policemen are said to have been on a ‘special assignment’. Whatever assignment the ASI and his team were engaged in evidently did not go very well.
The situation is almost farcical. We continue to pretend that a badly trained, poorly motivated and essentially inept police force can save us from criminals. What happened at Ubauro simply underscores how far from reality this idea is. The policemen must have been aware that criminal gangs, such as the one that took them away, operate in the area they had set up camp at. Yet even so they appear to have taken no measures to keep themselves safe. This hardly inspires confidence or faith. The truth is that we need to take a hard, and honest, look at our police force. It lacks even the ability to combat mundane, ordinary crime. We should not even expect it to go up against militants or other more dangerous elements. What is needed is a training and re-structuring programme for police. Perhaps our allies can assist with this; the UK has in the past offered help as have other nations. Today, we need a specialised, efficient and competent force to deal with the kind of threat we currently face. It is obvious we must act urgently to put together such a force.