Heightened security: Security audit of ‘I’ sectors ordered

It would be the largest audit in urban Islamabad

ISLAMABAD: Inhabitants of Islamabad’s suburban localities are often under the scanner of law enforcement agencies, but now, the Interior Ministry has started a special security audit of a significantly populated section of urban Islamabad.

The area under scrutiny is the I-series of sectors — except for Sector I-8 — which covers the belt parallel to IJP Road. The area also houses the city’s most populous illegal slum, Afghan Basti in Sector I-11.

“The Islamabad Capital Territory Administration and the police have been directed to hold a security audit of the area to gather basic information about area residents,” Interior Ministry spokesperson Adil Sattar told The Express Tribune.

Sattar said Interior Minister Chaudhry Nisar had recently issued directed to initiate the exercise.

A senior Interior Ministry official, wishing not to be named, said the decision was taken in view of recent concerns expressed by intelligence agencies about the area.

“In recent days, law enforcement agencies have found individuals involved in heinous crimes including terrorism operating from these areas. Some suspects have also been picked up from here,” the official said.

He said the security audit would focus on basic information such as occupation and length of stay or residence in the area.

Industrial Area DSP Abdul Razaq said the police were currently conducting two separate surveys — a security audit of the I-series of sectors, and a survey of schools — on the direction of the Interior Ministry, and were submitting reports on a daily basis.

He said he could not comment on the most recent directions.

The I-series of sectors share a border with neighbouring Rawalpindi and ha multiple entry points with relatively low security.

Due to lower rental values in the area, many who migrate to Islamabad initially stay in these sectors. Meanwhile, Sabzi Mandi is frequented by hundreds of vendors, buyers and sellers from across K-P and Punjab on a daily basis.

Official Islamabad Police crime data for the years 2013 and 2014 also shows that the crime rate in these sectors is higher than the rest of the capital. The sectors fall with the jurisdictions of two police stations — Industrial Area and Sabzi Mandi.

In 2014, the Industrial Area Zone — which also includes Sabzi Mandi — registered 19 murders, 24 kidnappings, 136 robberies, 25 day burglaries, 174 vehicle thefts, and 185 arms violations.

Meanwhile, according to a 2012 UNHCR survey, some 7,995 individuals including unregistered Afghans are living in Afghan Basti. The vast majority of residents, however, are Pakistani.

Published in The Express Tribune, February 4^th, 2015.