Protecting the protectors: IG promises to provide armoured police vans to DSPs

DSP Majeed Abbas, killed on Tuesday, is the third DSP to be gunned down in the last 40 days.

KARACHI: Following the murder of yet another DSP in the city on Tuesday, the provincial police chief has promised to provide armoured police vans to every DSP in order to protect their lives.

Sindh IG Ghulam Hyder Jamali claimed that the group behind the cops' killings had been identified, adding that the killers will soon be put behind bars. Three DSPs have been gunned down in Karachi in the last 40 days, the latest being Site DSP Majeed Abbas in Shah Latif on Tuesday. On May 10, DSP Zulfiqar Zaidi, the security in-charge of the Sindh High Court, was shot dead along with his friend in Shah Faisal Colony, while Steel Town DSP Abdul Fateh was killed in Gulshan-e-Hadeed on May 1.



Former Hyderabad Jail superintendent Aijaz Haider was also shot dead in Karachi on May 15 and Preedy SHO Aijaz Khawaja was killed on April 16. A total of 51 police officials and personnel have been killed in the city so far this year.

"The group behind the killings, especially those of the three DSPs and a SP, has been identified. We [the Sindh police] promise that we will not let them go at any cost," vowed Jamali. "The investigators are close to finding the culprits and the group will soon be busted."

Saying that law and order was an old issue in Karachi, he claimed that there had been a massive decrease in crime this year, as compared to 2014. He pointed out that 53 target killers had been shot dead and 54 others arrested in the first five months of 2015.

Jamali was talking to the media during a cheque distribution ceremony held at the police headquarters in Garden for the families of 37 martyred policemen and 80 other deceased policemen. He also claimed that the Sindh police had asked the provincial government to increase the compensation money from Rs2 million to Rs10 million.

Sindh home minister Sohail Anwar, who was also present, paid tribute to the martyred police personnel. "We are doing our best to provide all possible resources to the police, who are sacrificing their lives to restore peace in the city."

Published in The Express Tribune, June 11^th, 2015.