KARACHI: By planning to procure drone technology, the Sindh police are planning to use the unmanned aerial vehicles (UAV) not only for surveillance purpose but also for targeting ruthless bandits at their hideouts in riverine areas of the province.

The shift in policing is said to be because of a difficult terrain in the riverine areas of four hard-to-reach districts — Ghotki, Sukkur, Shikarpur and Kashmore — which provide safe havens to outlaws.

Analyst Mohammad Amir Rana, who is director of the Pak Institute for Peace Studies (PIPS), said: “Use of drone has been increased in Pakistan. Initially, this technology was used by army during Zarb-i-Azab, but now it is being used ‘extensively’ to counter urban terrorism.”

“Drones are expected to be used in katcha areas. This is a big shift in security due to changing technology of surveillance and change in operational ways,” he said. “This is a major shift in operational techniques being used by the Counter-Terrorism Department and other law enforcement agencies.”

UAVs to be used for surveillance and targeting criminals in katcha area of four districts

Senior counterterrorism official Raja Umer Khattab believed that use of drone technology has become imperative to improve security.

However, he suggested that in urban areas, this technology should be used for surveillance purpose only to avoid collateral damage, while in riverine areas, the drones should be used for both purposes of surveillance and strikes.

Options being explored, says IGP

“We are working on it and in close coordination with the suppliers of security equipment,” Sindh police chief Ghulam Nabi Memon told Dawn.

Talking about reports of procurement of drones and other sophisticated high-tech arms to meet growing challenge of dacoits in katcha areas, he said: “Police need surveillance equipment and long range sniper rifles for policing in this katcha area.”

IGP Memon added: “We have explored certain options and will place our shopping list with the government as soon as it is finalised.”

Official sources said that the Sindh government had formed a committee for procurement of arms, ammunition and security items after the killings of five police officers in Ghotki in September and it decided to procure modern technology to deal with the menace of banditry.

A letter from AIG-Logistics Dr Samiullah Soomro to Wah Industries Limited stating that the Sindh police needed “40 surveillance drones Matrix-300 night vision thermal, 30 Ababeel payload delivery/surveillance, 30 range sniper master and sniper rifle and 100,000 ammunitions, 75 thermal scope, 75 night vision scope, 75 laser range finder, 10 vehicle mounted machine guns, 20 automatic grenade launchers, 16 mortars, and four command vehicles for drones (master trucks), etc”.

An official familiar with this development told Dawn on condition of anonymity that the Sindh police sought unit cost/price estimate of each item. However, they have not received any response as it may take some time for calculation of the cost of each item.

The official said after assessing the cost involved, a summary would be moved to the chief minister for approval of funds to procure the said equipment.

He said these modern technology and weapons would be placed at disposal of four districts, which had riverine areas to be used against bandits.

Besides, the Rapid Response Force (RRF) personnel had already been dispatched there to launch a targeted operation against criminals.

Ghotki SSP Tanveer Tunio told Dawn that a significant progress had already been made to procure drones, etc.

He said: “An order has been placed and trials [of drones] have been started”. He said he had attended one trial of drones in Peshawar on Friday and another trial was expected to be held on Jan 9, 2023.

“An order has been issued, the process of procurement has been started and we are now moving towards final conclusion,” he said.

Jungle warfare — holistic approach

Karachi’s South-SSP Syed Asad Raza, who had served in Kashmore which is one of the worst districts hit by banditry and tribal feuds, said this was ‘jungle warfare’.

He said that the US had suffered badly in Vietnam War because of thick forests and trees, which were used by rebels for hiding.

Similarly, in katcha areas of Sindh, the dacoits used forests and thick trees for camouflage.

He said riverine areas were spread over hundreds of kilometres, which posed serious security challenge for police. He recalled that when he was SSP Kashmore, he had used drones privately and spent hundreds of thousands of rupees for surveillance purpose, but it had limited value as duration of drone cameras was around 45 minutes.

He suggested that surveillance drones should be complimented with high precision target drones.

The SSP added that the issue of banditry in riverine dated back to late 1970s partly because of transportation of sophisticated weapons there and host of other issues like injustice in rural areas.

He said a holistic approach was required to deal with the katcha banditry as apart from security policy, it was also needed to provide dispensation of justice in rural areas.

Published in Dawn, December 27th, 20222022*