DERA GHAZI KHAN, Feb 13: The recent sabotage acts on the all-important government installations and railway tracks have exposed the frailty of the district administration and police.

Saboteurs have successfully achieved their nefarious designs by blowing up railway tracks, gas and oil pipelines in the last two weeks or so about which the police are still clueless.

Information dug up by Dawn revealed that District Nazim Jamal Khan Leghari, son of the tribal chief, and his brother Awais Ahmad Leghari (the federal telecommunication and information technology minister) had informed the government and highly-placed quarters in the last week of December 2004 about the suspicious movement of the Balochistan Liberation Army around the border areas of tribal area of Dera Ghazi Khan.

Shepherds belonging to the Leghari tribe, according to information, brought the news to their chief that the BLA men were asking the locals to support their cause, otherwise, they would conquer the Fort Munro (hill station and tribal centre of the Leghari tribe).

Taking stock of the situation, teams of intelligence agencies visited the Fort Munro and the rest of the area to have a view of the security arrangements. At that time, the Nazim did not admit officially and publicly that he had informed the government about the suspicious movement of the BLA men near the borders of tribal area in Dera Ghazi Khan and Fort Munro.

Intelligence agencies, however, made a vigilance centre at the Fort Munro to monitor the communication flow of the BLA's movement in and around the tribal area. Around two dozen army men had been engaged in the activity at the tourist resort since Eidul Azha, sources told Dawn.

It is pertinent to mention that despite alarming the higher-ups in the administration, neither the district Nazim nor District Police Officer Suleman Chudhary has taken any remarkable step to guard the national assets in the area.

Ironically, the Nazim claimed in an exposure to media after the third incident of sabotage that he had already informed the government and authorities concerned about the suspicious movement of the BLA around the borders of tribal area of Dera Ghazi Khan on the Balochistan side.

However, he could not evolve any strategy to prevent any untoward situation. DPO Suleman Chaudhry, who had earlier performed his duty in Muzffargarh district, had failed to bridle the Bosan gang activities and failed to restore the writ of the government.

He was quoted as saying that the tribal area of Dera Ghazi Khan was the hub of criminal activities and suggesting that the Border Military Police (which maintains law and order situation in the tribal area with help of local tribes) should be merged in the Punjab police and the status of tribal area be withdrawn.

What compounds the problem is the district administration's inefficiency regarding recruitments in the departments of great importance. To take one example, the post of bomb disposal technician in the Civil Defence Office has been lying vacant for long.

When contacted, an official confirmed to this correspondent that the post was lying vacant. Some of the Chinese engineers (working on a gas field in Tuman Qaisrani tribal area) this correspondent talked to expressed contentment over the security arrangements made by the BMP and the Baloch Levy.

It is pertinent to point out that movement of any stranger in a tribal area cannot go unnoticed because of centuries old norms. Even a member of an adjacent tribe cannot move freely in the area of the other tribe without the permission of the former.

DIG Humayun Raza told Dawn that the police were still clueless about the sabotage acts. However, he said, security around sensitive installation in the settled area had been beefed up.

BMP and Baloch Levy commandant Syed Imtiaz Shah told this correspondent that 40 men of the levy had been deployed at the Dhodak Oil Field in the tribal area, as security arrangements made by the OGDCL were not up to the mark. He stated that the company's security chief had been apprised of the weak security plan and he had reached to take stock of prevailing situation.