KARACHI: On the main Saddar intersection, two police commandos are seen standing next to a traffic policeman while he speaks to a motorbike rider. The traffic policeman, while wearing a bulletproof vest with a gun holster on his upper thigh, then goes on to speak to a group of other traffic policemen standing beside the road leading towards Zaibunnisa Street.

The security arrangements at this particular intersection came after DIG-Taffic Amir Ahmed Shaikh wrote to Rangers and Karachi police to help the traffic policemen as five of them had been killed in roadside shootings recently. Three days ago, in a meeting with Karachi police chief Mushtaq Mahar, the DIG once again spoke about the need to arm the traffic policemen across the city. Though DIG Shaikh insists on implementing the proposal, he admits this is not a long-term solution.

“It is a deterrent for sure,” he says while speaking to Dawn over phone. “But we are supposed to manage the traffic and not worry about keeping an eye on motorcyclists carrying guns. But having a paramilitary officer or a commando nearby would definitely instil fear. It is not a proper long-term solution but something we have to do for now.”

Forty-nine traffic policemen have been targeted from 1995 to 2015, according to DIG Shaikh. Around 1,200 traffic policemen work in one shift with an overall force of 3,100 across the city. Of them, 600 traffic policemen were armed in recent days with 300 police commandos to accompany them from now on.

As for the shooting incidents, the police officers are looking at three probabilities.

Former city police chief Ghulam Qadir Thebo says one of them is the involvement of the “transport mafia and the recent crackdown on Qingqi rickshaws in the city”, while the other two probabilities are involvement of “some of the remaining elements behind the Safoora Goth incident,” or “a gang of miscreants”.

Ruling out the first probability, as he believes the “transport mafia is not so strong anymore,” DIG Shaikh says: “It is a work of one gang which is currently targeting traffic policemen to create a sense of anarchy in the city.”

He adds that so far the investigation points towards “some elements that were not caught after the Safoora Goth incident in which people from the Ismaili community were attacked”.

Though a Rangers spokesperson did not confirm whether the request sent by the traffic police head had been approved, another paramilitary officer did confirm a plan to provide security to traffic policemen around ‘sensitive intersections’.

These include areas in three Karachi districts — Manghopir, Orangi Town and Ittehad Town in West district and pockets of the East and Central districts.

Published in Dawn, September 21st, 2015

On a mobile phone? Get the Dawn Mobile App: Apple Store | Google Play