Flirting with danger: At the Cantt railway station, the security checks are just a mere formality
The detectors being used can’t differentiate between explosives and ordinary metals.
Business for porters at the Cantt railway station has been slow since the explosion on December 29 on a bus parked nearby. PHOTO: MOHAMMAD NOMAN/EXPRESS
KARACHI:
As the Karakoram Express chugs along one of the platforms at the Cantt railway station, scores of passengers and porters scramble towards the entrance gate.
In the midst of the maddening rush, a lone constable of the Bomb Disposal Squad (BDS) clad in black shalwar kameez stands by a walk-through metal detector, vainly trying to check luggage with a persistently beeping handheld device of his own. It appears that he is tasked with a mere formality, for which nobody really cares, including him.
This is a picture of the departure of one of the trains from the railway station, which caters to around 50,000 passengers each day.
On the condition of anonymity, a BDS official told The Express Tribune that the walk-through and handheld metal detectors are of no use. “They beep at every metal. They can’t distinguish between explosives and metals.”
Surprisingly, for the Pakistan Railways’ Karachi division - which goes all the way up to Tando Adam - there are only three BDS personnel trained for bomb disposal. The rest are volunteers belonging to other department of railways who have not been trained.
The official said that there are a total of four walk-through detectors in the Karachi division, two of which are installed at Cantt station and one each at the City and Hyderabad stations. There is only one X-ray machine for the entire division and it is only used for the Thar Express, the train which runs between Karachi and India.
“At the very least, we need more explosive detectors. Right now we only have one,” said the official. He added that to cope with terrorist threats, the squad should be equipped with the latest gadgets, bomb disposal kits, signal jammers, more vehicles and at least 100 trained personnel including woman constables. Dozens of law enforcers posted to the railways have received bomb disposal training but they have not been made a part of the BDS, said the official.
He added that after a bomb blast at Lahore railway station in April 2012, the Karachi division’s administration repaired 26 CCTV cameras at the Cantt station, which were not working for a long time. But most of them are broken again.
While talking to The Express Tribune, Ghulam Yaseen Buriro, who heads the BDS said that it is trying its best to keep an eye out for even the slightest of suspicious behaviour and odd objects along the railway tracks. “We are undoubtedly understaffed and under-equipped, but we fulfill our duties with honesty.”
He said that there are temporary members in the squad who have not been trained but they are from the technical departments of railways and can easily spot unusual objects on both the tracks and the trains. “When they find something suspicious, they clear the public from the spot and then the BDS personnel check it out.” Buriro added that they have been asking for new equipment and trained staff for years but nothing has been done- except for a lot of pointless paperwork.
According to railways police senior superintendent Arshad Kamal Kiyani, they have a bomb disposal squad that handles the situation in case of an explosion or terrorist activity. He admitted that he had no specific information on how the railways police’s BDS works. “God is our savior.”
Published in The Express Tribune, January 5th, 2013.
As the Karakoram Express chugs along one of the platforms at the Cantt railway station, scores of passengers and porters scramble towards the entrance gate.
In the midst of the maddening rush, a lone constable of the Bomb Disposal Squad (BDS) clad in black shalwar kameez stands by a walk-through metal detector, vainly trying to check luggage with a persistently beeping handheld device of his own. It appears that he is tasked with a mere formality, for which nobody really cares, including him.
This is a picture of the departure of one of the trains from the railway station, which caters to around 50,000 passengers each day.
On the condition of anonymity, a BDS official told The Express Tribune that the walk-through and handheld metal detectors are of no use. “They beep at every metal. They can’t distinguish between explosives and metals.”
Surprisingly, for the Pakistan Railways’ Karachi division - which goes all the way up to Tando Adam - there are only three BDS personnel trained for bomb disposal. The rest are volunteers belonging to other department of railways who have not been trained.
The official said that there are a total of four walk-through detectors in the Karachi division, two of which are installed at Cantt station and one each at the City and Hyderabad stations. There is only one X-ray machine for the entire division and it is only used for the Thar Express, the train which runs between Karachi and India.
“At the very least, we need more explosive detectors. Right now we only have one,” said the official. He added that to cope with terrorist threats, the squad should be equipped with the latest gadgets, bomb disposal kits, signal jammers, more vehicles and at least 100 trained personnel including woman constables. Dozens of law enforcers posted to the railways have received bomb disposal training but they have not been made a part of the BDS, said the official.
He added that after a bomb blast at Lahore railway station in April 2012, the Karachi division’s administration repaired 26 CCTV cameras at the Cantt station, which were not working for a long time. But most of them are broken again.
While talking to The Express Tribune, Ghulam Yaseen Buriro, who heads the BDS said that it is trying its best to keep an eye out for even the slightest of suspicious behaviour and odd objects along the railway tracks. “We are undoubtedly understaffed and under-equipped, but we fulfill our duties with honesty.”
He said that there are temporary members in the squad who have not been trained but they are from the technical departments of railways and can easily spot unusual objects on both the tracks and the trains. “When they find something suspicious, they clear the public from the spot and then the BDS personnel check it out.” Buriro added that they have been asking for new equipment and trained staff for years but nothing has been done- except for a lot of pointless paperwork.
According to railways police senior superintendent Arshad Kamal Kiyani, they have a bomb disposal squad that handles the situation in case of an explosion or terrorist activity. He admitted that he had no specific information on how the railways police’s BDS works. “God is our savior.”
Published in The Express Tribune, January 5th, 2013.