KARACHI: The Sindh government decided on Monday to arm the police with the latest defence gadgets and raise a special commando-like fighting force to take on criminals.

At a meeting held at the Chief Minister House to review overall performance of the ongoing targeted operation in the city, Sindh Chief Minister Syed Qaim Ali Shah gave approval to raising of the special force, recruiting of more retired army personnel in police in addition to 2,000 as planned earlier and induction of 200 more investigation officers and an equal number of prosecution officers.

He ordered preparation of lists of government employees who were involved in criminal activities and allowed shifting of dangerous convicts to other provinces.

Mr Shah directed the law enforcement agencies to expedite their operation against terrorists, kidnappers and extortionists and asked the authorities concerned to provide 300 bulletproof mobile vans, 100 armoured personnel carriers (APC) and bulletproof jackets/helmets to Sindh police.

At least five APCs be arranged for Karachi’s jail authorities, he ordered.

In order to ensure and increase conviction rate of criminals by trial courts, the meeting approved recruitment of 200 more investigation officers and an equal number of prosecutors and decided to establish a separate prosecution cell under the supervision of a DIG.

The cell was envisaged to use services of private lawyers to further strengthen the prosecution of cases registered during the targeted operation.

The chief minister approved setting up an open cell under the supervision of a DIG to receive complaints about extortion from the general public. Besides, focal persons would be placed in all business centres to gather information about incidents of extortion and report them to LEAs for prompt action, it was decided at the meeting.

The meeting sanctioned total head money of Rs12 million for five most dangerous criminals with varying head bounties and directed the Additional IGP of Sindh, Shahid Hayat, to complete list of other 378 such criminals, recommend head money for each and submit it to the department within 48 hours so that the lists could be published in the newspapers.

At the outset of the meeting, the chief minister praised coordination among Rangers and police and said that although considerable achievements had been made against criminals there was still need for pre-emptive swoops on terrorists.

The meeting criticised cellphone companies for failing to block unverifiable SIMs and termed it a major hindrance to the maintenance of law and order in the city.

It decided to once again recommend to the federal government to ban illegal SIMs and ensure biometric verification of each individual before issuing him or her SIMs through Nadra.

The meeting was informed that permission had been received from the Sindh High Court to shift 51 dangerous convicts to other provinces while 220 such undertrial criminals were presently being shifted to other cities of the provinces along with their cases. The meeting directed the IG of prisons to complete the installation of jammers in the prisons within a week.

The chief minister asked the additional chief secretary (home), Mumtaz Ali Shah, and Karachi Commissioner Shoaib Ahmad Siddiqui to prepare a list of government employees who were either involved in criminal activities or skipped duty but were drawing salaries regularly.

Additional IGP Sindh Shahid Hayat informed the meeting that as compared to crime figures of recent past, crime rate had dropped steadily in the wake of the targeted operation in Karachi.

Quoting from CPLC record, he aid that during April 1 to Sept 7 last year 1,228 cases of targeted killings were reported as against only 393 cases after the operation. Similarly, between Sept 8, 2013 and Jan 15, 2014, against 651 cases of extortion, only 393 were reported and against 99 cases of ransom only 42 were reported during the operation period.

He said that 9,178 suspects had been arrested during the operation out of whom 7,148 had been challaned and 97 had been convicted while challans of 122 suspects had been filed in the ATCs in 88 cases. The meeting also informed that 50 criminals had been detained for 90 days for joint investigation.

Earlier, the participants of the meeting offered fateha for the departed souls of Chaudhry Aslam, Bannu and Rawalpindi blast victims and other cops who died in armed attacks in Karachi.

The chief minister expressed serious concern over a recent bout of terrorist attacks which resulted in the murder of SP Chaudhry Aslam, Maulana Usman Yar Khan and three workers of Express TV and directed the officers concerned to immediately arrest the culprits.

Sindh Minister for Information Sharjeel Inam Memon, chief secretary Sajjad Saleem Hotiyana, additional chief secretary (home) Syed Mumtaz Ali Shah, IGP Sindh Shahid Nadeem Baloch, Additional IGP Shahid Hayat, law secretary Meer Mohammad Shaikh, Prosecutor General Sindh Sher Mohammad Shaikh, all DIGs of Karachi and other officers of LEAs attended the meeting.