Fibre optic project: Special Branch Sindh limping on Rs50 million crutch

A Rs 50 million data automation and communication project for the Sindh Special Branch has been left non functional, leaving the intelligence unit, already suffering from government’s apathy and the lackadaisical approach of the top cops, crippled.

Initiated by the former IG AD Khawaja in 2018, the fibre optic project was meant for secure data communications of the Special Branch network across the province. It was felt that the previous modes of communication compromised on the sensitive nature of the intelligence communications. The multi million communication project had to link the Special Branch headquarters at Karachi with its tentacles in Hyderabad, Sukkur, Larkana, Mirpurkhas. The project was installed across the province but despite payments, the project is functional in Karachi alone, while for all practical purposes the remaining parts of the province remains out of the loop, sources said. “Technical glitches are keeping the project from becoming fully functional,” sources said. “The funny part is that no one is pursuing the company that has packed up and left for the unaccomplished work despite contractual obligation to manage the whole network after deployment for a year,” sources confirmed. But then this is not the only lament.

At a time and age when the TECHINT has proven its inevitable value in gathering intelligence and the conventional ‘eavesdropping’ HUMINT is no more the primary source of gathering ‘intel’, the withdrawal of cell phone locators and essential software has left the organization with wings clipped. “The Branch no more has access to the Crime Record Verification software,” sources confirmed to The News. It is a critical application which helped to verify the record of any suspect at the click of a button, without going through the crime records strewn in police stations across the province stacked in files and locked in cupboards. “Similarly, the branch had access to car registration software of the Excise Department and the regular and updated PTA support on SIM ownership, but it can no longer access that either,” the officer said while adding these were helpful in getting helpful intelligence about crimes and terrorism. There are leadership issues too.

Several officers without ever serving the intelligence outfits have been posted in the Special Branch, said a departmental source. “These officers try and run the intelligence unit on a day to day incidental approach much like a normal police station instead of building and developing the intel and analysis,” he said. The career intelligence officers are a different breed who can work simultaneously in a compartmentalized fashion with tenacity, stealth and strong EQ to survive varied pressures and guarding objectives even with ruthless and cunning manipulation and double cross. “There are officers who have sectarian prejudices and assign tasks reflective of their dangerous bias,” said another serving officer complaining that “those posted as punishments often have little motivation to work in the more stressful ways of running intelligence tentacles.” It is this mindset that has diverted the attention of the organization from organized crime to non substantive functions. Gathering precise ‘intel’, developing intuitive analysis of politics, terrorism and organized crime including drug trafficking, gambling, kidnapping for ransom, fuel smuggling, street crimes is the essential mandate of the Special Branch but now they also have to work to regularly work on issues of non professional nature.

Tracing FIRs filed in a police station on a daily basis is an unprofessional exercise assigned to the Special Branch. There are many other tools available within the police to find out if the FIRs are being recorded,” commented an officer. Nationality verification, and scrutiny for passport and that of various entry passes to the airport and the sea port cause unnecessary drag in the daily functions.

The department suffers from paucity of human resource and budgetary constraints, said a source. Intelligence gathering is a sleepless work requiring a ubiquitous presence but availability of fewer men are making the task difficult, said a source. Till some years ago, the Special Branch would post two officials for every police station. The identity of one was made known, while the other remained under cover, but that does not seem to be the case anymore. “The deployment of staff and transport for each of the 108 police stations is far from adequate,” confided a senior department officer. Several police stations do not have ‘any’ intelligence officer deputed at all and at many precincts one officer looks after two police stations, he said. “This compromises the quality of field work,” he said.

The branch is also a very effective instrument of “Internal Accountability” of the police and serves as the eyes and ears of the IG and this brings the staff into direct confrontation with the police. As a rule of the thumb, organized crimes are generally in the knowledge of the area SHOs, SSPs and DIGs. “Reporting about neglect, corruption and connivance to the crimes has often led to vendetta of the severe kind against the field intelligence officers,” said another Special Branch officer who led the organisation. “There have been several instances of intelligence operatives being booked in false cases by ‘annoyed’ police officials.” Many times the ID of officers infiltrating crime syndicates was leaked who suffered swift retribution,” he said.

Sworn to protect the comrades in operational hardship, the top departmental officers would not stand up in their defence, while the officers and their families were ruined, said another police source. “This has not only demoralised the rank and file of the Special Branch but broken the faith in the camaraderie of brothers in service,” he commented sorely.

During recent operations in Karachi, under CCPO Shahid Hayat they did a fine job against terrorists and the Lyari gang war. Earlier, also the Branch played a valuable role in cracking the deceptive network of terrorists involved in Daniel Pearl kidnapping and subsequent murder. This after all is the mandate and the organization needs to be resurrected. (To be concluded)