Riot squad to tame ‘unruly crowds’ in Sindh

Cabinet approves setting up new police unit to counter riots, protect key installations

KARACHI:

The Sindh cabinet on Monday decided to launch an anti-riot force of the provincial police to confront crowds, protest, riots in Karachi and other parts of the province. In this regard, the cabinet gave its nod giving it the name of "Crowd Management Unit" (CMU).

The unit would be required to respond professionally during a violent public disorder to prevent loss of lives and damage to properties, to counter unruly crowd, and to maintain peace and order.

"The police personnel are not properly trained. We are starting an organised unit in the coming days to respond to the violent public disorder," Home Secretary Saeed Ahmed Magnejo said while giving a presentation in the cabinet.

Sources told The Express Tribune that the police would become violent during protests or sit-ins. Therefore, proper training and equipment would be provided to the newly-formed force to deal with such situations.

"There will not be fresh recruitment for the new unit. Some personnel will be picked from the existing force for it," an official said.

Sindh Chief Minister Syed Murad Ali Shah chaired the five-hour long cabinet meeting, with ministers, advisors and special assistants in attendance.

The meeting was held to review the recent recruitments in the police department in which many people have been appointed on fake domiciles.

"There are complaints that a large number of candidates belonging to other provinces holding Sindh domicile have applied and appeared in the tests. We should look into it," the chief executive said.

He instructed Chief Secretary Sohail Rajput to send the domiciles of newly-recruited officers in the police department for verification.

The meeting also decided to start a wheat procurement from March 15 at a rate of Rs4,000 per 40kg. The cabinet approved Rs58.7 billion for relief work and enhanced the scope of the Rapid Response Force (RRF) in the province.

The anti-terrorist and anti-dacoits force was established in 2009 with core responsibilities for the security of vital installations such as oil refineries, the supreme court and the high court at Karachi, the CM House, Sindh Assembly building, security of VVIPs and cricket teams, important religious, political and social gatherings.

The CM was informed that the expansion of RRF to the entire province would enable district police or other law-enforcement agencies to respond quickly in case of emergency.

The cabinet was also briefed on the relief and rehabilitation process after the recent rains that devastated many parts of the province.

Despite the complaints coming from various districts against government officials for neglecting flood victims in relief and rehabilitation process, the officials told the meeting that around Rs58.7 billion were released.

Published in The Express Tribune, February 7^th, 2023.