KARACHI, July 20: Following a spate of suicide bombings in different parts of the country, the Capital City Police Officer (CCPO), Azhar Ali Farooqui, has issued special security directives to the police department.
The police have been ordered to perform its duties with full capacity for the establishment of law and order and security of the life and property of the citizens.
The CCPO directed that all the city’s entry and exit points be fully guarded and suspected vehicles, people and items should be thoroughly checked. The police chief asked officials concerned to supervise snap checking and enhance coordinated patrols in their respective towns and areas.
“Policemen dressed in plain clothes should monitor sensitive areas”, he said. Mr Farooqui also advised police personnel to remain vigilant at all times for the sake of their own security.
He also allowed the use of sniffer dogs for search purposes and directed the traffic police to take legal action against vehicles with tinted glasses and without registration numbers or AFR plates.
Officials who were keeping unauthorised security guards were issued notices and instructed to withdraw police guards and hire private security personnel, he said. Mr Farooqui maintained that all withdrawn guards would be deployed across the city under the envisaged security plan.
The Pakistan Rangers, Sindh, has also tightened security especially at the entry points of the city.
According to a statement issued here, sniffer dogs were also being used during vehicles’ checking. It added that security measures had been enhanced at sensitive places in the metropolis as well as at major roundabouts.
It said that Rangers and the police made joint patrols for two hours in separate parts of the city.
Police officials assured City Naib Nazim Nasreen Jalil of enhanced security at the old KMC Building on M.A.Jinnah Road that housed the Naib Nazim Secretariat and the City Council.
It was decided at a meeting that security guards deployed at all the entry and exit points of the building would be trained at Police Headquarters, Garden.
Ms Jalil requested the council members to bring their identity cards along with them to attend the sessions in the future.
Similarly, the staff should also bring their identity cards, she said requesting citizens that they too should cooperate with the security personnel while visiting the KMC building.
The police officials said they would devised security plan keeping in view the historical importance of the building.
SSP Security Ameen Yousufzai, SDPO Jam Muzaffar Dharejo, SHO of the area and town intelligence officer attended the meeting.—APP/PPI
