HYDERABAD: Hyder­abad police have failed to probe cases of terrorism and targeted killing of policemen and others, mostly because of fear of retribution by culprits, lack of professionalism and use of notorious means of conventional policing.

Hyderabad is witnessing a surge in targeted killings since 2012. About a dozen policemen have lost lives in target attacks since November last year but police have failed to bring any culprit to justice, investigations by Dawn revealed.

In the first targeted killing of policemen on Nov 26, 2013, in Latifabad, four constables were gunned down at Manan hotel.

The killings were later claimed by banned Tehreek-i-Taliban Pakis­tan’s then spokesman Shahidullah Shahid.

Investigation did not make any headway and the case remained ‘untraceable’. “In each targeted killing case we notice panic among officers. Nobody is willing to work and everybody just likes to hypothesize without evidence,” said a policeman.

Terrorists killed Dawoodi Bohra community men, three followers of Barelvi school of thought and former MQM taluka nazim Jalilur Rehman in 2012, MQM candidate for a provincial assembly seat Farkhrul Islam and a number of party activists. Taliban owned responsibility for Islam’s killing but police could not arrest anyone.

In the latest such attack, three policemen were killed in a targeted attack on July 6.

“When Taliban claim responsibility police feel their job is over as they consider terror cases out of bounds because they badly lack courage to investigate terror related cases in absence of institutional support,” said another policeman.

Hyderabad DIG Sanaullah Abbasi disclosed that a major headway was expected in next few days into July 6 killings. “It is not police alone. There are other agencies also which investigate terror cases. We need facility of phone tapping under Fair Trial Act but its procedure is too cumbersome and that too is not available,” he said.

After Nov 26, 2013, policemen have been targeted with short intervals in a highly professional manner. Among other incidents sub-inspector Salman Farooqui was attacked for the second time on April 16; two police constables were gunned down on May 24 outside the residence of a builder; a constable was murdered in City police station area and a traffic policeman was gunned down in the city. Police have remained utterly clueless about all these cases.

The brazen attacks show that terrorists have the ability to strike anywhere without fear leaving police to fret and grope in the dark. Once again, police officials are just hypothesizing about the July 6 killings.

DIG Abbasi, too, did not rule out possibility of revenge by accomplices of Adnan alias Addoo, gunned down in an encounter. “Actually police probe is going nowhere. There is no set procedure to investigate [target killing] cases. We lack capacity, courage and guidance to probe them,” said a policeman.

“The officers do not show professionalism while dealing with their subordinates. We notice zero moral level among lower ranking officers. Take the case of sub-inspector Salman Farooqi, who survived the second attack on April 16, 2014, in Shah Makki police area.

“An SSP visited him after three days of attack and the DIG hasn’t got time to even call him to inquire after his health. No financial assistance has been given to him. This state of affairs has serious demoralising effect on others who feel that same will happen to them if they went after culprits at the risk to their lives,” said a police source.

“If activists of some banned outfits were sent to central prison, no policeman even dare interrogate them. No officer has read joint investigation reports of these accused which have been shared by Karachi police,” he said.

DIG Abbasi admits policemen are scared. “I fear more such attacks as there is a nexus between banned outfits and other criminals.”

Hyderabad police do not have certain equipment of their own like locator that helps find callers, said a police officer.

Published in Dawn, July 17th, 2014