KARACHI: The provincial government has finally decided to form a well-trained police force exclusively to guard polio volunteers as had been envisaged a couple of years earlier, but the idea was dropped for inexplicable reasons, it emerged on Friday.

Officials in the Sindh government said the gory incident of Wednesday in which seven policemen guarding polio teams were killed by gunmen on motorcycles in Orangi Town pushed the government to rethink the idea of establishing the force, which required policemen with commando training with specific assignment to safeguard the unarmed volunteers who stroll streets and do their job knocking every door in their areas.

“The idea was originally floated two years ago and had impressed the chief minister but then it was dropped without citing any reason,” said an official.

“The very reason might be related to provision of huge funding required to raise such force.”

The sources said Chief Minister Syed Qaim Ali Shah had asked the senior hierarchy in the police and provincial home ministry to quickly work on the plan.

“It has to be done quickly as the present police force has little training and is more efficient in routine crimes than guarding thousands of volunteers in hostile conditions,” said an official in the home ministry.

Earlier, the chief minister had temporarily formed a 700-men-strong dedicated police force headed by a senior superintendent of police with a single mandate to provide security to polio teams.

He had asked the IG of Sindh police to arrange for 50pc personnel of the force each from Karachi and the rest from the province and arm them with sophisticated weapons and vehicles.

However, the order could not be complied with and all such public claims were readily forgotten.

“The problem then was that the police force was short of personnel to raise a dedicated squad. Such a force could only be viable if we recruit it afresh like a new scheme,” said an official.

He claimed that the Sindh government treated poliovirus and ‘terrorists’ on equal merit. “And now both have a nexus against our future generations.”

The officials said the government had no idea involving the armed forces in carrying out the ongoing polio campaign in the city.

“Apart from that unfortunate incident, our campaign is running satisfactorily, and despite the attack on the police, their morale did not go down,” an official said.

He added that the government was not considering the demands of involving army in the polio campaign.

“The armed forces always remain on standby, but that is an option that could be taken at times when all the rest are consumed.”

The officials involved in the polio campaign said none of the neighbourhoods in the city had been spared during the campaign and the results were ‘highly impressive’.

Published in Dawn, April 23rd, 2016