RAWALPINDI: It begins with a knock at the front door, which gradually becomes more insistent. The door opens and the figure of a paramilitary officer is silhouetted against the doorway.

“Who owns this house? Are you the owner or a tenant?” a voice asks, gruffly. Members of the household offer their identity papers to the officer at the door, who surveys them carefully, jotting down details such as names and cell phone numbers.

Outside in the alley, half a dozen officials from various agencies look on. They stay put until something out of the ordinary is detected; an unregistered tenant on the premises rings alarm bells.

The lead officer chides the homeowner for not registering their tenants at the local police station, something mandated under the Punjab Information of Temporary Residents Act 2015.

The younger, more able-bodied are carted off to the police station to explain themselves, while the elderly receive more deferential treatment. “We’re doing this for your own protection,” is the parting shot from the camouflage-clad officer as he motions to his team to move on to the next house.

Rangers have been conducting joint search operations alongside army, police and intelligence officials in a bid to curb terrorism and unearth terrorists’ facilitators ever since they were given special policing powers earlier this month.

Since their empowerment on Feb 22, the paramilitary force has conducted 15 joint search operations. The main thrust has been cantonment and city areas, where a majority of sensitive installations are located. In these operations, 45 people were booked for violating tenancy laws, while four foreigners were also picked up.

The targets have largely been localities where Pakhtuns or Afghans have taken up residence, such as the Fauji Colony and Hazara Colony in Pirwadhai, as well as Dhoke Najoo in Khayaban-i-Sir Syed.

In addition, residential areas around installations such as Adiala Jail, Benazir Bhutto International Airport and bus stands in the city have also been searched.

Rangers are also conducting search operations in rural areas on the outskirts of the city.

The newfound powers have given law enforcers a renewed vigour; during a search operation in Pirwadhai on Friday, the brother of a union council chairman was booked for operating an illegal gateway telephone exchange and organising gambling on cricket matches. Such an arrest would not have been possible for local police under normal circumstances because of the political influence involved.

But not everyone in the city is happy with the way these operations are being carried out.

“The recent wave of terrorism has already terrified citizens no end; now it is the army, Rangers and police who are out to scare peaceful citizens through these unannounced search operations,” a resident of Boring Road told Dawn.

He complained that paramilitary personnel entered people’s homes and went room-to-room, upturning drawers, opening boxes and cupboards while residents looked on helplessly.

“Seeing armed Rangers and police personnel at one’s doorstep is bound to scare even the most law-abiding citizens, especially early in the morning,” a resident of the Ratta area said.

“When the search party entered my house, I began to wonder if I’d done something wrong. But I was reassured when they left and entered the next house as well; I realised that it was a door-to-door search,” he said.

A resident of Gulshan-i-Irfan told Dawn she was stranded on the road for a good 90 minutes while a law enforcement team conducted a search in her neighbourhood, which is located in close proximity to Hamza Camp.

“They were not checking every home, but they had sealed the whole area. They searched the house of a family from Gilgit, probably because they look Pashtun,” she said.

When asked if she had ever witnessed something of the sort before, the woman said that following the attack on the Army Public School in Peshawar, there was greater scrutiny of Afghans in the area. “But nothing like this,” she said.

Local law enforcement, however, considers the extension of policing powers to Rangers a boon. “Searches and combing operations are beneficial in weeding out miscreants, illegal residents, foreigners and proclaimed offenders, as well as yielding the recovery of illegal weapons,” a senior police officer told Dawn.

Earlier, police could not carry out such door-to-door searches at hotels, hostels and other premises. “Now, we can do so without any fear,” the officer said.

He claimed that the search operations had also helped improve the law and order situation in the city tremendously, as street crime had witnessed a drop in recent days.

According to police, more than 30,800 individuals have been questioned in 85 search operations since Feb 1. But there is scant information about those picked up in operations under the banner of the newly-launched military operation, Raddul Fasaad.

On Feb 25, Inter-Services Public Relations claimed the arrest of 600 suspects, including Afghans, from across Punjab. However, there was no word on how many of those arrests were made in Rawalpindi.

But not everyone being hauled off in police vans is a hardened criminal; in an ironic twist, the Punjab government’s crackdown on kite-flying has coincided with the launch of the urban counterterrorism operation.

A Rawalpindi-based journalist described the scene in his neighbourhood: “More than a dozen policemen were in my street, I assumed it was a raid on some terrorist hideout. Later, they told me they were hunting kite-flying kids.”

Hassan Belal Zaidi also contributed to this report

Published in Dawn, February 28th, 2017