Response mechanism: Rescue 1299 helped LEAs carry out relief work at airport says commissioner

Official promises Baldia factory incident will not be repeated.

KARACHI: As experts point out flaws in the response to the recent attack on the Karachi airport, the city commissioner proudly claimed how the Rescue 1299 service successfully coordinated between various departments carrying out the rescue operation.

Commissioner Shoaib Ahmed Siddiqui addressed a press briefing at his office on Wednesday to highlight the importance of coordination between the city’s rescue services.



“When we received information about a militant attack at the airport, we immediately called the Civil Aviation Authority director and later coordinated with all the civic bodies to respond immediately,” he said. “No serious incident took place inside the premises of Jinnah International Airport after our coordination as all emergency services reached the airport along with all their machinery, such as fire tenders, excavators, snorkels and ambulances.”

The Rescue 1299 service was launched to address such situations, he pointed out.”We knew the importance of coordination among all the bodies,” he said.

Siddiqui referred to the 2012 factory fire in Baldia Town that worsened due to a lack of coordination between various rescue services. “After the establishment of the commissioner office’s rescue service, another Baldia-Town-like incident will not happen,” he assured.

“We request our citizens that, in case of any emergency, they should immediate contact 1299 and we will transfer their request to the relevant department,” he explained. Even the police, naval forces, district municipal authorities, Citizens-Police Liaison Committee and the cantonment boards are on board, he added. “The effectiveness of this centre is its response time, which is two minutes after the complaint is registered.”

The rescue service also sends text messages to the head of the relevant department so that the response comes immediately, he said. Once the system is upgraded, the service will also include information of machineries and other equipment at the disposal of the authorities. Later, the commissioner visited the Rescue 1299 office and gave a briefing on its functions.

Role of media

The commissioner also criticised the role of the media during the airport operation and insisted that the operation to find the men stuck inside Gerry’s D’nata storage continued till the very end. “Since the media was not allowed to enter the premises, they did not know how the operation was proceeding,” he said. “They only focussed on the front side of the building while rescue work took place on the back side.”

Published in The Express Tribune, June 12^th, 2014.