Karachi: In order to reinforce the conventional police force in Pakistan’s commercial hub, the government on Monday inducted hundreds of former military men, who will be deployed in the sensitive and volatile parts of the city.
The government had earlier planned to hire retired soldiers in the police force to supplement its efforts to maintain law and order after the apex court took notice of the highly volatile situation in the city and murders that were running into thousands each year.
Some 700 former army men would work as an operational force at the police stations. Of these recruits, 150 were posted in the western district of the city, which has been infested by militants, gangs and criminals.
The deployment of the soldiers in the western district comes as authorities are planning to withdraw as many policemen from the area who were faced with serious threats from the militant groups.
Attacks on police officers have been on the rise for several months and over 90 policemen were killed in targeted killings in this volatile city since the beginning of the current year.
A police officer was gunned down in restive Lyari town on Sunday while he was sitting at a roadside restaurant. The attackers shot him in the presence of dozens of patrons at the hotel.
In another case, a senior female police officer survived an attack on Sunday evening while she was travelling in her official car.
The unknown attackers fired gunshots on the vehicle of Jalees Fatima, a police superintendent.
The provincial government had lifted the ban on hiring in order to recruit as many as 7,000 policemen to reinforce the present force, which has been considered as insufficient to combat crime in the city.
Of the total number of proposed recruits, the authorities planned to hire 1200 ex-servicemen.
Karachi, the largest city and financial capital of Pakistan has long been a hiding place for militants and the threat of instability was further heightened after the arrival of new batches of the militants fleeing the military operation in North Waziristan.