High-level huddle: Army chief orders wider, swifter Karachi op

Apex committee to meet weekly; agencies told to increase data sharing

KARACHI:

Chief of Army Staff General Raheel Sharif has ordered expanding the scope of the Karachi operation to hunt down terrorists in all corners of the violence-plagued city.

During a meeting of the Sindh apex committee held at the corps headquarters in Karachi on Thursday, the provincial and military leadership decided to speed up the ongoing targeted operation with enhanced surveillance in suburban areas.

Sources said the army chief expressed his displeasure on the latest terrorist attack and called for accelerating the Karachi operation and taking down terrorists – irrespective of their political or other affiliations.

This was the third high-level meeting within 24 hours after the attack on the Ismaili community in Safoora Goth, where 45 people were killed in an execution-style  attack on a bus.

Apart from Gen Sharif, the meeting was attended by Karachi Corps Commander Lt General Naveed Mukhtar, Inter-Services Intelligence Director General (DG) Rizwan Akhtar, Sindh Rangers DG Major General Bilal Akbar, Sindh Governor Dr Ishratul Ebad, Chief Minister Qaim Ali Shah and officials of police, Rangers, home department and intelligence agencies.

In a series of tweets on micro-blogging website Twitter, the military’s spokesperson Major General Asim Saleem Bajwa pointed out the decisions taken at the meeting.

Action would be taken against all criminals and their abettors regardless of their political, religious, ethnic, sectarian or any other affiliations, announced the Inter-Services Public Relations’ director general. It was decided that apex committee meetings would now be held every week to discuss the targeted operation. Intelligence agencies have been told to work together to exploit existing leads.

A surveillance system is to be developed for strict checking at all entry and exit points of Karachi and an intelligence sub-committee will be formed for strong coordination between the government and military officials.

The meeting agreed on the need to extend the law enforcers’ writ to Karachi’s weakly governed areas and checking all financial sources of criminals, Bajwa said. Transparency would be ensured in the transfers and postings of officials and merit-based appointment would be made in various departments with oversight mechanism to help the system for long-term sustainability.

A day earlier, Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif during another high-profile meeting at the Governor House had expressed concern over the lack of intelligence sharing between police, Rangers and other agencies.

The army chief directed the officials to strengthen intelligence coordination between civil and military institutions.

Chief Minister Shah lamented that the Rs3.4 billion “police package” promised by the prime minister when the Karachi operation was launched in September 2013 had not been fulfilled by the federal government. “This has exerted additional financial burden on the Sindh government,” he complained. “Under the package, Shah said, police were to be equipped with sensitive gadgets and equipment like armoured personnel carriers.”

General Sharif assured the chief minister that he would provide all the equipment to Sindh police within a month if the provincial government could send him a detailed list. He assured Shah that he would take up the issue with the prime minister personally and get the province’s grievances redressed.

Published in The Express Tribune, May 15^th, 2015.