KARACHI, May 7: The Sindh police are finding it hard to spare more manpower for the Lyari police to come down hard on gangsters operating in the area, but they have handed over 3,500 policemen with mobiles for guard duties to members of the new cabinet, politicians and influential people, it has been learnt.

A proposal for allocating 1,000 police personnel for Lyari is already pending with the quarters concerned since the period of former Sindh IG Ziaul Hasan.

“The government should prove that it is serious about solving the problem of Lyari by committing resources and manpower. So far only lollypops have been handed out,” remarked a senior police officer, requesting anonymity.

“What results one can expect if the head moharrir has to look to Rehman Dakait or Arshad Pappu to feed the police force posted in the town in a case of emergency?” the officer wondered.

In his very first interaction with the media, Sindh Home Minister Zulfiqar Mirza apologized to the people of Lyari that they had suffered too long and promised that things would begin improving soon.

Talking to Dawn, Capital City Police Officer Sultan Salahuddin Babar Khattak said “things will change in Lyari soon”.

“We are taking and addressing each issue priority-wise. The capability of police is being enhanced and the local police are being replaced,” said Mr Khattak.

Answering a question about a grand operation to root out criminal elements from Lyari, the CCPO said that would prove a counter-productive move.

Immediately following the posting, almost every SP who is not already hand in glove with the local gangsters is given an offer by the mafia not to disturb the status quo and also get a share in the exploits, said a senior police officer.

“Both the gangs of Arshad Pappu and Rehman Dakait make their offers,” the officer said.

“One hopes that the officer does not succumb to their offers and threats hurled to him,” the officer added.

A fresh wave of violence was seen when SP Fayyaz Khan took over. Policemen were made targets in the attacks that left many dead.

During the last six years since the enactment of the Police Order 2002 as many as nine town police officers had been posted in Lyari, but except for a few all of them failed miserably in their professional work.

The officers and their postings have been as follows: DSP Sualeh Mohammad, from Feb 1, 2002 to Jan 14, 2003; ASP Syed Khurram Ali, from Jan 14, 2003 to Oct 3, 2003; ASP Ali Mohsin, from Oct 3 to Jan 25, 2004; DSP Javed Baloch, from March 17, 2004 to Dec 1, 2004; DSP Malik Muhammad Husain, from Dec 13, 2004 to March 15, 2005; ASP Omar Shahid, from March 15, 2005 to Aug 12, 2006; SSP Dawood Ahmed Junejo, from Oct 11, 2006 to May 3, 2007; SP Pir Fareed Jan Sarhandi, from May 5, 2007 to Sept 17, 2007, and SP Muhammad Fayyaz Khan, from Jan 18, 2007 to March 13, 2008.

On Tuesday, 104 policemen who were posted in Lyari and had developed links with local gangsters were transferred away.

“Bad policing is not the only issue in Lyari, police face the brunt for the faults of all civic agencies, including the KESC and the KWSB. When power or water is in short supply, people take to the streets and each time police have to take the blame if any thing goes wrong,” SP of Lyari Imran Shaukat said. Why a police officer doing duty in an air-conditioned room of Madadgar 15 would go to Lyari at the same salary to risk his life, the officer said.

Citing a few major handicaps of police, SP Shaukat said the APC was of crucial importance in Lyari. The first thing the gangsters did was to shoot at its tyres to make it immobile, making policemen sitting ducks.

He said that after a persistent demand steel helmets and new bullet-proof jackets had been supplied to the Lyari police.

Former TPO of Lyari Ali Mohsin, now happily posted in Punjab police, recalling his experience in Lyari told Dawn that the situation was totally messed up. Even entire families were involved in crime, and for instance one brother could be in drug business, the other could be active in land grabbing.

The local police are also deeply connected with the mafia.

“It is the job of the local elected leadership of the area to take the lead by bringing about awareness, providing jobs to unemployed youths of the area, who are always the soft target for criminals,” SP Mohsin said.

“Soon we plan to play a football match with the local football club of Lyari as a confidence-building measure with the local community,” SP Imran Shaukat said.