KARACHI: With the terror threat looming over the metropolis, the city police appear to have become more than ever aggressive in chasing suspects and engaging them in ‘encounters’ for which they have been given over Rs20 million in rewards by the authorities, it emerged on Tuesday.

This happens to be the highest sum of reward money disbursed among the policemen from the Sindh police annual budget in recent years.

Officials said the reward for ‘showing bravery and performance while executing an assigned task’ ranged from as low as Rs100 up to Rs1 million. In fact, they added, the money in that particular head of the Sindh police budget had not been ‘actively utilised’ over the past few years. It was decided in principle amid the ongoing ‘targeted-operation’ that the budget for the purpose should be used more ambitiously, the officials said.

“So far, I have distributed some two million rupees as rewards among our men,” acting Sindh police chief Iqbal Mahmood told Dawn. “The additional IG or Karachi police chief Shahid Hayat Khan also distributed some Rs20 million among constables and officers of the city police. It’s to boost their morale and recognise their [policemen’s] efforts on the streets.”

He said the reward money was made part of the Sindh police budget every year, but by the end of every financial year the amount mostly remained unutilised both due to the least care of the relevant authorities and the unsatisfactory performance of the policemen.

“But this year we decided to appreciate and recognise each and every commendable work of our men,” he said.

“The momentum of street crime has gone down. Similarly, killings on sectarian, political and ethnic grounds have tremendously decreased. All this has been achieved through active policing and this must be appreciated.”

With threats ranging from terrorist attacks to deadly battles with gangsters, street criminals and hit men associated with political groups, the police have been passing through the bloodiest and most challenging phase of their history. But the challenges have apparently convinced the Karachi police to respond even more aggressively. A rising number of encounters reflect the same spirit.

The Rangers, which actually lead the ‘targeted operation’, killed some 78 suspected militants, gangsters and criminals in 52 encounters since September 2013.

The police, however, seemed to have moved more aggressively against criminals as more than 80 suspects met the same fate while allegedly exchanging gunfire with the police during the past six months.

“It’s called a commendation certificate or CC,” said an official. “There are three categories of this CC such as CC-I, CC-II and CC-III. The CC-I is awarded by the IG or additional IG while CC-II by the respective district DIG. Similarly, CC-III is awarded under the authority of an SSP-rank officer. The CC-I is never less than Rs100,000 and it may go up to a million rupees. Recently, the Sindh additional IG announced a million rupees reward for a police party which had completed the job successfully.”

He said there was no separate allocation for the CC reward money, as it was being utilised from the total Rs48 billion budget allocated for the police by the provincial government for the financial year 2013-14. The cash reward offered under the CC-II and CC-III ranged from Rs100 to Rs10,000, he added.