KARACHI: A young man got off a motorbike on one track of the arerial M. A. Jinnah Road and crossed it to stand on the opposite track, where it appeared as if he was waiting for someone. It did not take long as the wait for him was over as soon as he saw a motorcyclist wearing police uniform coming towards him. He pulled out a pistol, fired shots at the motorcyclist, leaving him in a pool of blood. Then the assailant took a rickshaw and disappeared from the scene as well as from the coverage area of the closed-circuit television (CCTV) cameras that caught the whole episode.

The two-and-a-half-minute footage is one of the several pieces of evidence investigators are looking at these days while investigating a recent surge in the incidents of targeted killings in the city.

The chilling images do not only appear a source of concern for the law enforcement agencies claiming success in the ongoing ‘Karachi operation,’ they also reflect the level of confidence the killers enjoy while doing their jobs in any hour of the day and in any district of the city.

Hundreds of surveillance cameras installed by the Karachi Metropolitan Corporation (KMC) and the Sindh police — now being operated by the Karachi police through a command and control centre at the Civic Centre — record such images almost on a daily basis that somehow portray the city as fast becoming a hub of criminals, militants and mafias, people who have seen such footage told Dawn.

“One cannot imagine the level of confidence of the killer [on M.A. Jinnah Road] as hardly any fear was in evidence when the young man fired shots at the policeman,” said one of the sources.

The M. A. Jinnah Road incident was not the only and last one.

The footage recorded by the KMC cameras on the Kashmir Road-Shaheed-i-Millat traffic intersection is not very different. It showed two men riding a motorcycle and the pillion-rider firing shots on another motorcyclist — a policeman — near Khudadad Chowrangi. As the wounded policeman fell down with traffic moving at a normal pace, the attacker got off the motorbike, fired more shots to ensure the victim’s death, took the latter’s official pistol and sped away along with his accomplice.

The victim police officer was later identified as Assistant Sub-Inspector Tahir Ghazi. The footage was also aired by DawnNews on Tuesday.

“It’s not only killings which are executed in this manner, I mean with such confidence ... criminals carrying out their activities without any fear or you can say in a thoroughly professional way,” said another source.

“For instance, there was a hand-grenade or cracker attack on a restaurant in the Tariq Road area recently. It is hard to believe how it was executed. A young man got off a motorbike across the road where the restaurant is situated. While his accomplice took the bike to some distance, he lights a cigarette and starts waiting for the right time. Then he pulls out a grenade and lobs it at the entrance to the restaurant. Later, he walks to his accomplice and the two disappear from the scene.”

The incidents mentioned were a few of those recorded daily but nothing has changed in terms of planning, strategy and revisiting the security policy if there was any for this city, he said.

Such footage, the officials believe, must serve as a wake-up call for the authorities both at the centre and in the province who in the larger perspective have not realised the level of security challenges in Karachi despite the level of threats ranging from terrorism to deadly battles with gangsters, street criminals and hit men associated with political groups.

They say the surveillance system is crucial for the investigations but definitely require more development. “One cannot rule out the effectiveness of these systems,” said DIG-South Abdul Khaliq Sheikh. “Electronic evidence does not only help investigating any case but is also admissible in a court of law. Secondly, with the passage of time, it would further be developed so it’s much better to start with.”

Published in Dawn, July 9th, 2014