The surrender policy

This week, a leading national newspaper carried a half-page advertisement featuring the headline "The Dawn of Peace in the Land of Katcha," claiming that the Katcha region of Sindh has been reclaimed from dacoits. The same phrase was shared by Home Minister Zia Ul Hassan Lanjar in a tweet on his X account. Both referred to the Sindh Surrender Policy, approved earlier this month by the cabinet, which allows dacoits in the Larkana and Sukkur regions to surrender their arms in exchange for government assurances of rehabilitation, livelihood, healthcare, educational access and vocational skills. The following day, a surrender program was arranged at the office of SSP Shikarpur, with the Sindh Home Minister as the chief guest - along with the IGP, DIG Larkana, Rangers officials, MPAs and political and tribal leaders in attendance - during which no fewer than 72 dacoits laid down their arms. While the mainstreaming of dacoits is a step forward, the question arises as to whether the policy truly ushers in a dawn of peace in Katcha.

For decades, Northern Sindh - particularly the areas adjacent to Katcha - has served as a launchpad and safe haven for bandits who have killed, extorted, kidnapped for ransom, tortured and filmed victims, and terrorised citizens with almost complete impunity. Previously largely underreported due to the local media's nexus with the police, the issue has recently gained attention, prompting the provincial government to finally acknowledge the plight of the marginalised and oppressed. Over the years, numerous anti-bandit operations have been launched, yet they have failed to reduce - let alone root out - the chronic criminality haunting citizens in the districts of Kashmore, Shikarpur, Ghotki and Jacobabad. The decline in kidnappings for ransom - often attributed to operational success - is largely unfounded. Instead, it is primarily the outcome of the police's policy of appeasement.

Banditry in northern Sindh is largely sustained by two complementary factors: firstly, the systematic socioeconomic, political, and educational marginalisation of the people in the area. And secondly, the entrenched sociopolitical and institutional influence of parasitic pirs and clerics and tribal and feudal warlords.

These pirs and clerics profess asceticism without practicing it themselves and promise worldly and divine salvation to the disadvantaged and ignorant masses. They seek their unquestionable allegiance, thus keeping them from becoming self-reliant. Similarly, aristocratic, tribal and feudal lords translate the people's tribal loyalty into political currency, thereby affecting policing.

To sustain their economic interests, tribal ego, and public and political support, they incite inter- and intra-tribal feuds and manipulate policing in a manner favourable to their vested interests. In this way, the aggrieved parties - left without any redress from either the police or their tribal lords - often take refuge in Katcha to seek vengeance. Having evaded the law, the feud-ridden tribesmen form gangs and resort to crime for survival. Soon, due to their growing notoriety, these criminals find themselves shielded and protected by the influentials. Feudal and political lords exploit them to settle scores with opponents and to employ them in committing heinous crimes against citizens, thereby earning the criminals the label of bandits. This way, tribal feuds - fuelled by ignorance, pseudo-notions of tribal ethnocentrism and honour, and incited by tribal warlords and partisan policing - serve as the root cause of the rise of dacoits in the area. For instance, most of those who surrendered claimed they had tribal issues and had been declared bandits by the police.

Given the deep-seated rot, the surrender policy scarcely appears to be a proportionate response. The policy is simplistic and reactionary; it says nothing about resolving or preventing tribal feuds; holding tribal, feudal and political lords accountable; or depoliticising and reforming the police. Therefore, the surrender policy is yet another false dawn of hope.