KARACHI: The year 2016 has nearly come to an end; the country’s largest metropolis remained in the news for much of the same reasons that have plagued Karachi for years. The year saw many prominent personalities and son’s of the soil be silenced by a bullet.
The city’s top cop maintains that ninety percent of the crimes have been solved, those still remaining are crimes of a sectarian nature. Tracing out terrorists has also become more difficult since they have adopted a new modus operandi.
Larger known groups have split into splinter and sleeper cells and the members adopted dual memberships, working for terrorist and political factions at the same has made it difficult to identify and trace these criminals.
While the most high profile incident was the killing of world renowned Qawal Amjad Sabri – who was gunned down in broad daylight – there were other prominent targeted killings as well. 2016 saw the targeting of humanitarian activist Khurram Zaki, DSP Traffic Faiz Shigr, 3 doctors, 2 city wardens, 2 bankers, 2 Pakistan Army personnel and many more policemen.
In all, the city saw more than 50 high value targets being silenced forever.
According to officials, the terrorists active in the metropolis have changed their modus operandi. In the past large factions or groups were active in the city, however after the ongoing Operation Zarb-e-Azb the terrorist groups have split into smaller splinter groups and sleeper cells.
The new groups or cells are two to four-man operations; according to the Karachi’s Police Chief Mushtaq Mahar, tracing these groups is posing a difficulty because they have become very alert and careful. To avoid detection they do not use mobile phones or even social media, leaving human intelligence as the only option the law enforcers can rely on.
To avoid detection the terrorists have adopted unique methods. They change the firing pins of weapons to confuse forensic experts making it difficult to identify the weapon used in the crime. At other times they use shell-catchers which means no empty shells are left behind at the scene of a crime.
The role of the Rangers paramilitary force, intelligence agencies and the police has been crucial in combating crime in Karachi. However, with terrorists and criminals innovating and adopting technology the law enforcement agencies must embrace technology and improve the quality of human intelligence.