Police officials ill-equipped to deal with terrorism: Siddiqi

The News talked to DIG Saleem Akhtar Siddiqi to obtain his take on the present law-and-order situation and the working of the police force. This is part 1 of a two-part series... Wednesday, June 17, 2009 By Salis bin Perwaiz Karachi The senior Deputy Inspector General (DIG) of Police, Saleem Akhtar Siddiqi, an officer of the Police Service of Pakistan (PSP) batch of 1979, is adept at handling the law-and-order situation. Siddiqi has won laurels for his unwavering commitment to work in 1995-96, but surprisingly, was harassed by the National Accountability Bureau (NAB) for four years. However, he remains the only police officer to whom the NAB has apologised in writing. The News: Do you think the current police force is capable enough to handle the current law-and-order situation? Saleem Akhtar Siddiqui: In my opinion, the police force is not prepared to cope with terrorism — bomb blasts, suicide attacks, or the increase in street crimes. Because of this, not only is the situation getting out of hand, but the number of police causalities is also increasing. TN: Why do you say that and what suggestions would you give to improve the working of the police force? SAS: If you visit any police station, building, police lines, even the offices of senior police officers and you will find that they are not safe. When the force itself remains vulnerable to threats, how can they provide securityr to others? Do you see any police station that has sand bags for protection? Some senior officers claim that if they adopt such measures, then people will panic. I want to ask them: when similar measures were adopted by foreign missions, did it not create such feelings among common citizens? Coming back to the police officers, how many of them wear bullet-proof jackets and carry weapons properly? Most of them have never fired a single round throughout their service. Most of their weapons have not been serviced and if an untoward situation occurs, they cannot fire their weapon without difficulty. TN: What are causes for police inefficiency despite the allotment of billions of rupees to the force in the last eight years? SAS: In every force, the lower ranks like sepoys and constables are the foundation. If the pillars in a building are weak, the whole structure is weak. You can spend billions of rupees on its finishing, but it will eventually collapse. Same is the case here. Our constables are shabbily dressed, untrained, physically unfit, poorly paid, and live in unhygienic conditions with a large number of children. About 70 per cent are sick, suffering from deadly diseases like Hepatitis C and TB, while a lesser number is also suffering from AIDS. The police constabulary comprises over 80 per cent of the total of force. They deal with the public, who is not in the least impressed by them. Why are there no improvements even after spending so much money? It’s because we have done nothing for the improvement of the constabulary. We have purchased luxurious vehicles for the officers but have not invested in sniper rifles or binocular-fitted guns for the lower rank cadres. TN: What about their training, considering the terrorist activities and modern weaponry? And what type of training is being imparted to them? SAS: In 1992, we started a special training for the police officers called ‘Commando training’. For this purpose, two specially trained army captains were brought in for supervision. Thus, we created commandos to fight terrorists and dacoits active in Sindh. Now, keeping in view the increase in such activities, we need to introduce dynamic changes in our training programme. At present, the police recruits are trained locally at various police training centres — the colleges at Sihala in Punjab, Shahdadpur in Sindh, and Saeedabad in Karachi. The syllabus is mainly divided into two parts: academic and physical exercise. However we must emphasise on that part of the training that increases strength and endurance, and stimulates intelligence. We must teach them how to recognise bombs, traps and RDX, and how to defuse them. Besides, they need to learn how to gather information from local areas.