Counter terrorism measures

Adequate technical support and training of police officials and more awareness among masses can help in damage control after suicide attacks, writes UZMA ALEEM


While coming back from surgical ward of Mayo hospital after visiting a relative of mine I heard the furore of Kerbla Gamay Shah’s suicide attack’s survivors and their relatives, they were in miserable condition because automatic ventilators were not available and three succumbed because of a lack of suction pumps. Well this was the chaotic situation in one of the largest hospitals of the country yet the chaos at the blast site was unimaginable as several Cops were stoned by protesters, building of Lower Mall police station was set on fire, 36 motorcycles and three vehicles of Police department were burnt by the violent crowd.



When the city of Lahore came under another attack on the occasion of Yaum-e-Shahadat Ali (RA) on September 1, 2010, unimaginable anarchy was witnessed that worsen the situation.
The second blast, causing three casualties, occurred within 30 minute of the first blast. However the first blast was of low intensity and no serious casualties have been reported. Ambulances and security personnel were present at the blast site.
Some enraged citizens clashed with the police and exchanged heated words, blaming security personnel for not providing adequate security. This huge demonstration, followed the two blasts at Bhati Chowk where the protestors damaged many vehicles including three police vehicles, and hurled stones on the police, provided the chance for the third blast which caused several causalities.
Faisal Gulzar, an official of Lower Mall police Station, said that after the second blast when they asked the crowd to disperse for easy evacuation of injured and slain, public outcry became outrageous members of crowd hurled stones on Cops, and then occurred the third blast causing several killings, so the third blast was not a result of security breach rather the chaos increased the intensity of disaster.
“Security parameters were also on top of things as 2041 cops including police officers were deployed for the security of Kerbala Gamay Shah Procession. This year we raised the security parameters by increasing the number of cops too as last year 1406 cops were deployed,” said the police official while talking to Splus.
He stressed that police department was fulfilling its responsibilities with full devotion despite the less resources and minimal technical support to counter suicide attacks. “We can not completely avoid these attacks. what we can, we can only minimise the damage in this situation when a suicide bomber is determined to blow him off, if we want to combat these suicide bombers then the police department have to raise the technical training of cops,” he was of the view.
Undoubtly the version of said police official is quite rational but during this situation of man made disaster, reaction of general public should be supportive for rescue efforts instead of creating hurdles.
Falak Ahmed, an official of Asian Disaster Management Agency, told Lahore was among most vulnerable cities of Pakistan. Chaos and public unrest further strengthen this vicious circle of vulnerabilities towards man made disaster of blasts and suicide attacks. To minimise the damage it is necessary to educate media and general public along medical and rescue staff.
While talking about the issue of security breach and lack of action on reports of intelligence agencies he revealed that they receive 10,000 letters every year from several security agencies of country and these all reports are based on presumptions These reports should be based on factual sources’ reports rather on the presumptions of intelligence agencies,”.
Faisal Gulzar further said that most of the suicide attacks were not a result of security breach rather one of the reasons of these attacks were lack of technical support for police department. “To cope with this menace we have to train our cops in proper way, it is irony of fate that after firing merely five bullets in police training we ask our cops to stand alert in most vulnerable areas of metropolitan, secondly along adequate training of human resource technical support is also need of the hour. Israel has combated with suicide attacks too but through high tech security support, like they built walls around vulnerable cities, then check posts with the facility of high tech robots were set up before every manually operated check post. Pakistan police do not have any explosive detector, no doubt we have metal detectors but these metal detectors can not detect presence of explosives. If we want to combat with these suicide bombers then we have to develop a procedure of technical surveillance. Moreover technical support and trained human resource will be helpful for reducing chaos during tragedies of suicide attacks”, he elucidated.
Adnan Masood, SI at New Anarkali Police station, who was also deployed for the security of Kerbala Gamay Shah Procession, expressed his grief on the suicide attacks and behaviour of enraged citizens which hindered their rescue efforts and claimed several lives in third suicide blast. He stressed during such situation masses must remained peaceful as police was devoted and they tried their best to avoid any security lapse.
Now what is needed in such situations? There is an immediate need of technical police surveillance along trained human resource. Moreover awareness campaigns on media for man made disaster management are also need of hour.