FOR a city that has seen recurring bouts of violence for a quarter of a century now, the death of three policemen in a pre-dawn attack on Thursday should come as no surprise. The policemen, on duty in PIB Colony, were cut down by a hail of bullets fired by gunmen who had come riding half a dozen motorcycles and two cars. The same day at Malir Halt, a senior police officer survived a bid by a suicide bomber to assassinate him, though four pedestrians were blown up. SP Anwar Khan himself attributed the blast to the Taliban, because he had been one of the leading security officials in the war on militants in Karachi. The mode of killing carried the militants’ signature. The attack was well-planned, and the explosive device weighing some four to five kilos contained over 100 pellets.

Investigators are not sure whether there was a link between the two attacks that occurred at opposite ends of the city. The PIB killings too showed meticulous planning and execution on the part of the perpetrators. Just as the militants had kept a watch on the SP’s movement, so too the killers at PIB knew that the policemen were sitting ducks, for they met with no resistance from the targeted law enforcers. The two murderous strikes clearly establish the security agencies’ inability to penetrate the killer networks that abound in Karachi. In a megalopolis that harbours well-armed and well-trained mafias of all hues, on-spot defenders are inherently at a disadvantage against those who strike with a plan. A basic measure to counter such attacks is a comprehensive counter-intelligence strategy that penetrates underground networks by using the most modern electronic and surveillance tools and techniques. The question is: do we have one that could deter such attacks against both policemen and ordinary people?