Post-mortem analysis: In DHA, security is better for golf clubs, not its residents, muse police

CID reviews threats for terrorism-fighting unit and their families.

KARACHI:

Top police officials, meeting a day after a bomb blast in DHA targeting one of their own, have questioned the housing authority’s security arrangements.

Eight people were killed and nine others were injured when a vehicle packed with 300kg of explosives rammed into CID SSP Chaudhry Aslam’s residence in DHA Phase VIII.

On Tuesday, DIG Commander Shaukat chaired a meeting at the Darakhshan police station where the case was registered. With him, SSP Raja Umer Khattab, SSP Naeem Sheikh and SP Tariq Dharejo reviewed security arrangements in DHA. They expressed concern that despite several attacks in DHA, including the murder of a Saudi consulate official, the housing authority had made no arrangements to install security cameras in their neighbourhoods. “They make it a priority to secure their golf clubs, but do nothing to secure the people who live there,” said one source, who attended the meeting. The footage from security cameras that Aslam himself installed for his own protection outside his home was lost in the blast.

At a separate meeting late Tuesday evening, senior CID officials discussed the threats to their lives and what more can be done to protect their personnel. They also discussed how to clamp down on the Tehreek-i-Taliban, which has claimed responsibility for the attack.

Officials who were part of that meeting told The Express Tribune that the attack was linked to the November 2010 blast on their Civil Lines headquarters. “A fatwa by the Taliban was also issued a few months after this attack, calling for the killing of not only CID officers, but also their family members and children,” a CID officer said. The officials believe that the attack on Chaudhry Aslam’s house was part of that strategy.

CID officials say that the main task is to nab the mastermind and handlers of the suicide attackers. “We are trying our best to prevent them from leaving the city,” he said.

However, it is no easy task. In fact, the main mastermind and handler of the terrorist attack on the CID office in November 2010 remain at large to this day and are believed to be in hiding in Waziristan, department sources say.

“We did catch some people after the attack back then, but they were not directly involved. However, they did give us the names of their handlers,” one officer said.

The officers also reviewed in detail the email sent by the TTP to media offices in which it not only claimed the attack on Chaudhry Aslam’s house, but renewed a pledge to attack five CID officers.

The officers lamented that the police high-ups and government ministers do nothing for them even after the attack. “CID personnel, who suffered serious injuries in the 2010 attack, have still not been compensated and even the ones who died and those whose family members were promised jobs, have yet to see the promises fulfilled,” a senior officer said.

In fact, he alleged that after the attack on the CID, the walls of the Central Police Office were raised. “But what about us, [the people] who put our lives in danger everyday,” he asked.

SSP Aslam continued to carry on working on the case at his Garden office. Speaking with The Express Tribune, he said, “My house may have been destroyed, but my will to fight hasn’t been dented an inch.” He said he was continuing to live somewhere in Defence. When asked to react about some people saying that he shouldn’t live in a residential area, he asked, “Where should I go then?”

Another senior CID officer like Aslam said it was most upsetting that people were saying that officers like them be moved to enclaves. He proposed a solution. “How about we stop fighting the terrorists and sit at home. That way we will live comfortably and the terrorists will go straight to bomb the schools?”

Meanwhile, as the dust settles around the neighbourhood where Aslam’s bungalow once stood, investigators admit that as of now, ‘no clue whatsoever’ has been found in the case. Chief investigtor Commander Shaukat told The Express Tribune that there was no veracity in the TV reports that eight suspects involved in the attack were nabbed. “The truth is, at this point, not a clue was left behind by the attackers,” he said.

Published in The Express Tribune, September 21^st,  2011.