Counterterrorism cooperation: High-tech vehicles gifted to FIA await clearance

Germany had undertaken to train, equip crime scene units in 2008-09.

LAHORE: Five state-of-the-art vehicles gifted by the German government to the Federal Investigation Agency for gathering evidence from sites of terror attacks are yet to be handed over to the Counterterrorism Wing, The Express Tribune has learnt.

The wing’s director Muhammad Khalid Qureshi has written to the FIA’s administration director, recommending that the vehicles must be distributed at the earliest.

According to an official document available with The Express Tribune, the German government had undertaken to train and equip crime scene units in 2008-09. German instructors were to train 15 officers but courses were delayed for two years due to the uncertain security situation in Pakistan. The second last module was concluded in 2011 and the last one is to be conducted in Germany.

The wing, designed to specialise in counterterrorist investigations, has the mandate to arrest and prosecute high-profile terrorists. The wing investigates terrorist financing and money laundering cases, analyses the crime scene and explosives used in major terrorist incidents, forensic analysis and cyber-terrorism investigations and prepares terrorist incident analysis and threat assessment reports for the federal government. It also aims to build a national database of terrorist entities and provide training courses for police departments.

The wing replaced the Special Investigation Group (SIG) last year. The SIG was mandated to investigate offences punishable under the Anti-Terrorism Act 1997 jointly with provincial police departments when it was established as a counterterrorism unit in July 2003. Important terrorism cases investigated by the wing include the attempted suicide attacks on the president’s camp office in Rawalpindi. It is also part of the special investigation unit constituted to investigate former prime minister Benazir Bhutto’s assassination.

Published in The Express Tribune, September 7^th,  2011.