HYDERABAD: Sindh Inspector General of Police A. D. Khowaja has said that counter-terrorism department (CTD) could not be activated in the interior of Sindh for want of resources and logistics. The process of recruiting ASIs and constables for the department was, however, under way, he said.He was briefing journalists about the proceedings of a meeting of senior police officers he chaired in the office of the Hyderabad traffic DIG on Friday. The meeing reviewed the arrangements being made for peace and security in Hyderabad, Shaheed Benazirabad and Mirpurkhas divisions during Muharram, he said.

“The CTD is not active in the interior of Sindh because its units have not been established there. We don’t have accommodations and the staff available to us,” he told a questioner when his attention was drawn to the practice of sending CTD investigators from Karachi whenever an act of terrorism would occur in the interior of Sindh. Now, he said, 1,000 constables and 500 ASIs are to be appointed and with this additional strength, CTD units would be activated there.

The IGP rated Karachi, Hyderabad, Sukkur, Jacobabad and Shikarpur as the “highly sensitive” and a few more “sensitive” areas from the point of view of terrorism during Muharram, and said the rating was based on intelligence reports as well as the interrogation and profile of arrested suspects.

He said that various intelligence agencies used to share the information received by them to ensure coordinated efforts against terrorism. In the identified districts, personnel of police and other law-enforcement agencies might also be targeted by terrorists.

“Rangers will be there to assist the Sindh police as per the Muharram security plan while the army will also remain standby and may be called in on the provincial government’s request,” he said.

Regarding the Sept 13 [Eidul Azha] incident in Khanpur town of Shikarpur district, where a suicide bomber blew himself up after being noticed and and another one was arrested, the IGP said that their handlers/facilitators were believed to be in Afghanistan and Balochistan. “That’s why the Sindh government is in touch with the Balochistan chief minister,” he said, adding that the Sindh police were fully prepared to face any eventuality.

IGP Khowaja told journalists that the Sindh government was considering a scheme of installing CCTV cameras in a phased manner at a cost of Rs10 billion for which technical assistance was being sought.

He said the Sindh police did not have adequate strength, and suggested that around 20,000 personnel were required to be recruited.

Meanwhile, the IGP met Ali Hassan Solangi — a policeman who was brutalised by some people in 2008 in Hyderabad in the backdrop of a dispute relating to the 2005 local bodies election. The Sindh police chief promised Rs500,000 assistance for him in addition to Rs300,000 incurred on his medical treatment.

Solangi’s tormentors had thrown acid in eyes, cut his both hands from wrist-joint and fired a burst on his legs. He is bed-ridden and has become blind.

Published in Dawn, October 1st, 2016