Need for Kacha Clearance

The recent attack on policemen by gangsters operating in the Rahim Yar Khan area of ​​Punjab is a stark reminder of the persistent threat that criminal elements pose in these regions. The latest outburst came in the form of an outrageous rocket attack on police vehicles, which led to the martyrdom of 12 policemen and injuries to dozens more. That alone should put senior law enforcement officials and policymakers to shame. While religious and separatist militants along the Afghan border are known to use such weapons, the fact that gangs hundreds of kilometers away from the border also have easy access to such weapons is simply incomprehensible. It must also be noted that a recent news report said that law enforcement officials dragged their feet in every operation because the criminals were far better equipped than the local police.

But it’s not just a failure to establish state authority. Recent news reports suggest that the police are actively taking sides in local gang warfare by supporting specific groups, hoping that the gangsters will simply kill themselves. But even if this strategy were not a ridiculous neglect of state authority, old-fashioned corruption means that different police departments “work together” with different gangs, giving criminals free rein to murder, kidnap, and robberies. A few months ago, a local elementary school teacher became famous for carrying a shotgun to protect his students, because the police can’t or won’t even protect schoolchildren. That teacher was later murdered by gangsters.

Successive governments have conducted security operations in the region, but the results have always been substandard. While there is some truth in the claims of law enforcement officials that it is difficult to track criminals in the heavily forested area, the whole point of a special operation is to do things that are beyond the scope of day-to-day police operations. There needs to be a genuine and coordinated effort by the governments of Sindh and Punjab to clean up their police departments and rid the Kacha region of the criminal scourge.