LARKANA, May 30: A state-of-the-art Asian Development Bank-funded forensic laboratory set up near the office of Deputy Inspector-General of Police Larkana range at a cost of Rs22.5 million was inaugurated here on Monday.

Additional Inspector General (forensic division) of Sindh Police Sharjil Kharal told journalists at the inauguration ceremony that the laboratory inaugurated by DIG Dr Sain Rakhiyo Mirani had been established under the bank's Access to Justice Programme.

It would temporarily cater to entire Sukkur region, he said, adding that the forensic section had been neglected in past but now the government had realised its importance.

Prior to Larkana, a forensic laboratory had been set up in Hyderabad and two more laboratories would be established in Sukkur and Mirpurkhas during next financial year for which tenders had already been floated, he said.

The synchronisation of all these laboratories would be a great help in early detection of crime because in past cases of firearms and finger prints were sent to Karachi, said Mr Kharal.

He said that Australian government had helped in purchasing the equipment installed at the laboratory, which would develop a facility for drawing sketches of criminals in future.

At present, he said, the laboratory would work with seven units dealing with firearms, ballistic examination, questioned documents, vehicle identification, finger print examination, crime scene investigation, Pakistan Automated Finger Print Identification system (PAFIS) and forensic pathology.

He said that 10 PAFIS units were presently operating in Sindh, which would be merged into these laboratories at a later stage.

The laboratory aided by 23 personnel would initially take up 13 cases from Khairpur, Shikarpur, Jacobabad, Qambar-Shahdadkot and Sukkur districts, he said.

He said that software worth Rs2 million would be obtained to ease work flow and quash possibility of tampering. Since 2009 to date, the forensic division of Sindh police had developed a database of 300,000 finger prints which kept growing, said Mr Kharal.

The system had finger prints 350 to 375 terrorists and the database continued to grow as information trickled down to it from CID, Special Investigation Unit and Anti-Violent Crime Unit.