Struggling to keep up: Police ill-equipped to safeguard citizens, SC told

Balochistan IGP says training for police has been launched.

ISLAMABAD:

The crime investigation department (CID) and intelligence wing of the Balochistan police is ill-equipped to combat terrorism in the province and is finding it hard to protect its people, the Supreme Court was told on Wednesday.

“I have started a programme to train the CID and improve the working of intelligence gathering department of the Balochistan police by inducting more staff and starting a police training school, following in the [steps of the] Punjab police,” said Mushtaq Sukhaira, the Balochistan inspector general of police. He was appearing before a two-member bench of the apex court that was hearing the case on the recent Quetta bomb blasts in Hazara town and Alamdar Road.

Justices Gulzar Ahmed and Sheikh Azmat Saeed adjourned the hearing for two weeks and directed Sukhaira to submit a report on what had been done to prevent sectarian and terrorist attacks.

Responding to the IGP’s argument that the Balochistan police force was finding it difficult to counter terrorism because of a lack of resources, Justice Saeed said, “No excuse should be given for failing to protect the basic right to live.”



Representing the provincial government, Advocate Shahid Hamid said the army had de facto control over provincial affairs and in the past, lack of coordination between the provincial authorities and law-enforcement agencies was one of the main reasons for the failure to stop terrorists.

However, Hamid said coordination between the agencies had improved in recent times and the security situation was improving for the residents.

Justice Ahmed replied, “The phenomenon of terrorism is not new in the world and the authorities should study how the menace was countered by different countries in a bid to chalk out a practicable and feasible strategy to defeat terrorists.”

Published in The Express Tribune, March 7^th, 2013.