KARACHI: The Sindh police are set to acquire 10,000 pistols of 9mm calibre amid growing security challenges which the authorities believe demand effective and easy-to-handle arms while policing in urban areas mainly against organised criminal and militant groups, it emerged on Monday.

Officials said the police floated a tender on a C&F (cost and freight) basis inviting bids for 10,000 pistols to be distributed among the personnel of specialised units in the first phase. They said bids were invited from arms manufacturers and suppliers.

“This is a routine exercise,” said an official when asked about acquisition of such a huge quantity of arms in one go. “There is in principle decision that the conventional weapons which have been in the use of the police force for the past two decades will gradually be replaced with their improved version. Cities like metropolis Karachi have become increasingly militarised over the years and the old models are turning ineffective in such a situation,” he added.

He said the process to acquire 10,000 pistols was near end. In the first phase, he added, officials of such specialised units as the counterterrorism department, anti-violent crime cell and anti-car lifting cell would be given the 9mm pistols.

“Since the specialised units are tasked with cases of terrorism, kidnapping for ransom, extortion and vehicles snatching, they are supposed to rely more on intelligence and under-cover operations, which are better done with small and easy-to-handle arms,” he said.

Currently, the official said, the city police used sub-machine guns (calibre 7.62mm), AK-47 assault rifles, commonly known as Kalashnikov, and G-3 rifles. Similarly, he added, 9mm metric calibre sub-machine gun of MP-5 was also in use of some police units.

In the past few years, retired military officials have also been helping the Sindh police in ascertaining the kind of guns needed for policing mainly in Karachi. The recent procurement of arms is seen on the same lines of advisory and expert opinion.

“A reflection of that approach can been seen in the recently-developed special security unit [SSU],” said the official. “You would not see SSU commandos carrying conventional arms while patrolling roads. Along with the AK-47 and sub-machine guns (calibre 7.62mm), these commandos are also armed with M-4 rifles.”

He said the procurement of SSU weapons, which included M-4 rifles of three-round burst with 16” barrel, quick detach adopter, holographic red dot sight, a magnifier and two extra magazines, was made a couple of months ago. The unit also had 7.62x51mm M4 sniper rifles with 20” barrel, night vision compatible long-range scope and 308 suppressors, he added.

“The SSU, you can say, is a complete unit with modern weaponry. It has also sniper rifles with 24.4” barrel, FMG-9 rifles, PS-90 rifles, MP-7 rifles and other modern gadgets. We have one good unit in the Sindh police and now the move is to modernise arms of other units and regular police of the province,” he added.

Published in Dawn, March 24th, 2015

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