Earful for police chief over crime surge

SHC seeks report on ‘influentials’ patronising dacoits

HYDERABAD:

The Sindh police and the home department were at the receiving end of the Sindh High Court’s ire on Thursday over their failure to curb lawlessness in the `katcha’ areas, particularly gangs of bandits involved in kidnapping for ransom.

The SHC Sukkur circuit bench, comprising Justice Salahuddin Panhwar and Justice Abdul Mobeen Lakho, grilled Home Secretary Saeed Mangnejo and Inspector General (IG) Ghulam Nabi Memon over rampant robberies and kidnappings in those divisions.

“A kidnapped person said after his release from captivity that the personal assistant of some [provincial] minister acquired his release after paying the ransom,” the bench told the officers.

Justice Panhwar, in his remarks, said it is not difficult to find out which politically influential persons are backing the dacoits.” The court observed that women were being kidnapped and raped and street crime was on the rise.

“But police commandoes have been deployed only for the security of either the VVIPs or the cricket matches,” the jurist noted.

Justice Panhwar shared statistics of the Sukkur district police, saying 1,600 cops out of 3,100 were deployed for the security of the VIPs and at necessary places.

“Everything has been reserved for the VIPs.

There is nothing for the common people.” He observed that VIPs could afford to hire security, unlike the common people.

Justice Panhwar underscored the need to deploy the army, rangers and police commandos for three months to root out banditry from the riverine forests.

“If they can help during floods, then why can’t they help deal with an even bigger problem?” The court gave one day to the home secretary and the IGP for consultation while instructing them to appear before the bench on Friday (today).

The IG told the bench that the special services unit or the police commandos provide security only to the VVIPs and at essential buildings.

Justice Panhwar inquired whether the deployment limitations were part of some law or a provincial cabinet decision.

The IG remarked that to his knowledge it was the cabinet’s decision.

The Sindh police chief assured the court that it would not spare those found patronising or protecting criminals even if they were or connected to influential individuals.

Later, speaking to the media outside the court, IG Memon urged people to come forward with evidence against legislators involved with such gangs of dacoits.

“The people who are being blamed for patronising dacoits provided us funds to fight against them,” he said without disclosing the names of the donors.

Commenting on the deployment of the army to spearhead an operation against the dacoits, Memon said the decision lies with the provincial government.

In what seemed to be a misplaced reference, the IGP claimed that until some years ago, people couldn’t travel beyond Hyderabad without a police escort.

According to him, the problem had now been confined to only three districts of Sindh.

The police chief later chaired a meeting to discuss the operational strategy for the riverine forests.