A POLICE inspector’s arrest in Karachi on Friday for allegedly supplying sensitive information to the Tehreek-i-Taliban Pakistan and other criminals, the round-up of many suspects in a clean-up operation, the deactivation of a time-bomb near a mosque, and the arrest of an Abbas Town blast suspect show how diligence can yield results. Police Inspector Rana Ishrat is not the first security official accused of supplying militants with sensitive intelligence. Diverse motives have prompted some armed forces personnel to pass on information to those who attack security and civilian targets. Some did it for ideological reasons; some apparently were trapped, while in this case it was lucre that allegedly motivated the policeman to pass on the information. In fact, as investigations have revealed, the tips he supplied to some groups of outlaws led to the murder of an assistant sub-inspector of police. As Rana Ishrat visited Fata, he was unaware that his movements were being watched. His activity had a wider range, because the intelligence he was leaking to the TTP and others aimed at eliminating some of Karachi’s top police officials, including the chief of the Anti-Violent Crime Cell, to which he himself belonged.

The penetration of the security forces is one of the militants’ major tactical aims. The attempts on Gen Musharraf’s life and the attacks on GHQ and other military bases show the enemy had collaborators within the security establishment. This calls for high-level vigilance to block the militants’ penetration of the security apparatus and weed out the state’s enemies. Rangers may be good at ‘clean-up’ operations, but it is the local police and the Crime Investigation Department that know their areas well and are in a better position to trail criminals and smash mafias.