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In a city where hundreds of innocent citizens have fallen victim to the menace of targeted killings, the police are no exception.
Statistics of the Karachi police show that during the first seven months of 2010, as many as 29 policemen were killed and 31 wounded in different incidents, including encounters with dacoits and incidents of targeted killings.
The Karachi police were suffering from a low morale after the targeted killings of an inspector and a deputy superintendent of police. Earlier, it was low-ranking policemen, including constables and head constables, who were killed while fighting criminals in the city.
Inspector Nasirul Hasan and DSP Nawaz Ranjha were gunned down by unidentified assailants in two separate incidents in Lines Area and on M.A. Jinnah Road, respectively.
Several low-ranking policemen felt that if the police were unable to trace and arrest the killers of their own fellows, then how one could expects that they would catch the killers of common people.
Criticising their seniors for a lack of clear policy, they were forced to believe that their seniors were uninterested in uncovering the killers behind the killing of the policemen and their motives.
Even a suspect arrested recently for his alleged involvement in the killing of DSP Ranjha was actually picked up by another law-enforcement agency, which later handed over him to the police, said a source.
Background interviews with several police officers suggested that even the officers of SP ranks who used to move freely in the city without police escorts had stopped doing so.
A senior police officer said that even the officers of the rank of DSP, who are not entitled to a police escort, started keeping their armed subordinates with them while moving in the city.
More attacks feared
Security concerns among the police officer grew when DSP Ranjha was killed along with his driver on August 16. The slain DSP was respected by all of his colleagues including seniors. “If such a non-controversial officer got killed in Karachi, any other officer could become the next target,” observed another senior officer.
Several Intelligence reports have also supplemented the sense of insecurity among the policemen.
Quoting the intelligence reports, the officer told Dawn that the intelligence outfits had warned that in future there could be more attacks on some police officers and officials other law-enforcement agencies in the city.
In the Central Police Office several walls have been dedicated to slain policemen whose names were engraved there.
“We wish that a tough stand be taken on the policemen killings in Karachi, where perhaps police fatality rate is very high compared to Lahore or Islamabad,” observed an officer.
In year 2006, at least 23 law-enforcers — 21 policemen and two Rangers men — were killed while eight policemen wounded in several armed attacks. However, the police, later, claimed to have arrested the suspects allegedly involved in the string of attacks on policemen.
