KARACHI: The renewed wave of attacks on policemen has not only caused loss of life but also raised serious questions about professionalism, policing skills and intelligence level of the law enforcement agency, prompting the Sindh police chief to issue new guidelines for the force across the city, it emerged on Saturday. 

The fresh set of measures includes regular firing exercises, deployment of young policemen at public places and replacement of old fleet of vehicles with new ones.

This was decided in a meeting chaired by IGP A.D. Khowaja soon after the funeral of the three slain policemen at police headquarters in Garden.

The funeral was attended by Sindh Chief Minister Murad Ali Shah, provincial minister Nasir Shah, A.D. Khowaja, DG Rangers Maj Gen Mohammad Saeed, Additional IG Karachi Ghulam Qadir Thebo, Additional IG Dr Sanaullah Abbasi of Counter-Terrorism Department and other senior officers.

At the meeting, the IGP appeared unsatisfied with the policing skills of the personnel. In the recent attacks, they failed to sense the danger and react in a timely manner, officials said.

The meeting decided to focus on capacity building of the existing force that included enhancing their operational skills, intelligence level and reaction time while handling different acts of crime and terrorism.

Official sources said IGP Khowaja directed the Karachi police chief and DIGs of all police zones to ensure regular firing practice of all the personnel on the operations side.  

Two of the three slain policemen buried in Karachi, another in Kandhkot after funeral 

The provincial police chief also informed the meeting that the shortage of police personnel would be met within the next two to three months, with over 6,000 policemen being trained by the army for deployment in the city.

The officials said IGP Khowaja also gave directive for running three shifts instead of two in order to improve the efficiency of the personnel.

The IGP, who was visibly saddened by the killing of nine policemen during the past few months, expressed his extreme displeasure over the repeated violation of SOPs (standard operating procedures) by the policemen.

Additional IG Karachi Ghulam Qadir Thebo told Dawn that they decided to take preventive measures and ensure effective implementation of the SOPs. However, he said the city police had only 2,700 bullet-proof jackets though the strength of police force was 29,000.

AIG Thebo said since pickup vans of the police had been targeted in recent attacks, the IGP was requested to order replacement of such vehicles.

Meanwhile, slain constables Babar and Afzal were buried in local graveyards in Karachi, while the coffin of ASI Qamaruddin was taken to his native town in Kandhkot for burial.

A 12-year-old passer-by, Zahid, was also killed while his friend, Abid, was hurt in the firing. The children were playing in Burmi Colony near Darul Uloom Korangi where the attack took place on Friday evening.

New weapons used

Meanwhile, the Counter-Terrorism Department registered a case on a complaint of a CTD official against unidentified suspects for the killing of three officials of the Awami Colony police station and initiated investigations into it.

The CTD investigators said the attackers opened indiscriminate fire on the policemen, as ASI Qamaruddin received 16 bullets while constables Babar and Afzal sustained 13 and 11 bullets, respectively.

Karachi police chief AIG Thebo said he had set up a special team led by DIG East to investigate the case. The committee comprised SSPs Investigations, Korangi district and the SIU.

The AIG Karachi revealed that spent bullet casings found from the crime scene did not match with those used in the previous four terror cases in the city.

However, Mr Thebo said they suspected the involvement of newly established group, Ansarul Sharia behind Friday’s attack as well.

He said this outfit had carried out the first act of terror in a Gulistan-i-Jauhar mobile franchise where a guard wearing uniform of Police Qaumi Razakar, resembling the police’s uniform, was gunned down on Feb 21. He was targeted on suspicions of being a policeman.

Later, militants killed a retired army colonel near Baloch Colony Bridge on April 5. This outfit was also involved in the targeted killing of two policemen in the Dhoraji area on May 20. Later, four policemen were gunned down in the SITE area on June 23 by the same militants.

The involvement of the same group in these four incidents had emerged through the forensic examinations of spent bullet casings used in the killings.

The city police chief admitted that so far, no member of this group had been arrested. However, he claimed that concerted efforts would be made to bust this militant outfit.

Published in Dawn, July 23rd, 2017