Karachi: City to shop under camera surveillance

[Naveed Yaseen]

By Salis bin Perwaiz
Every year, Karachi witnesses an unprecedented increase in the shopping extravaganza, especially during Ramazan. Tens of thousands of people are out on the roads to enjoy the festivities and shop. As a result, thousands of vehicles are plying the roads during this time.

With such a massive number of people out in the streets, with large amounts of cash, jewellery and other valuables in tow, it provides criminals with an opportunity to ply their trade. These criminal activities include snatching money, car theft or sabotage activities. Besides, as the majority of the customers are female, there is every possibility of pick pocketing, purse snatching, eve teasing and other unlawful activities by criminals and anti-social elements.

Traditionally, Tariq Road, Park Towers, Zainab Market, Gulf Shopping Centre, located in Jamshed Town and Clifton Town respectively, are the hub of most of the Ramazan shopping activities. Senior police officials, Senior Superintendent (SSP) Azad Khan of Clifton Town and Superintendent Police (SP) Javed Akbar Riaz of Jamshed Town told The News that their respective towns have finalised adequate security plans to thwart any potential security threat that the visitors may face during shopping for Eid.

SSP Khan of Clifton Town said that all the security arrangements were supervised by him personally and they have installed digital surveillance cameras at Park Towers and Forum so as to keep an eye on every suspicious moment.

He added that in every area, supervisory police officers of the concerned areas were responsible for security arrangements at the shopping plazas and will ensure the presence of police personnel at their duty points.

SSP Khan maintained that security camps have been established at various shopping plazas in which the personnel belong to the Police Department and members of the Market committee sit to hear the complaints of the shoppers. He added that due to security purposes, they were given extra force of 200 personnel. They have also hired persons from Police Qaumi Razakars (PQR) and deployed motorcycle patrolling policemen at parking places so as to keep a watch on any terrorism or robbery attempt. Female police officers have been deployed at shopping centres as per requirement.

SSP Javed Riaz said that he is personally supervising the security arrangements and has installed eight digital cameras at Tariq Road as well as established a control room near Liberty Signal. The cameras have a zooming capacity of about 300 meters. SSP Riaz added that the cameras were permanently fixed at Tariq Road as after Eid the control room focuses there so as to combat any street crime.

Regarding the deployment, both Clifton and Jamshed Towns police officials say that the police officers are patrolling in two shifts throughout the day. An SPO will be the overall in-charge of the security arrangements at shopping centres, besides ensuring effective maintenance of the law and order to avert any act of terrorism, sabotage, mischief or accident.

The two police officials have also requested for a bomb disposal squad for sweeping of entire shopping centres in the interest of the safety of the general public while shopping.

Regarding traffic, SSP Khan and SP Riaz said that they have made the necessary arrangements at shopping centres in light of the security plan to ensure a smooth flow of traffic and proper parking spaces.

They have also requested Pakistan Rangers to arrange for mobile patrolling as well as deployment of static pickets at strategic points around shopping centres to secure the visitors.

All mobiles forces will also carry Anti-Riot equipment and wear steel helmets along with bullet proof jackets and shields in case of possible emergencies. The supervisory officer can demand and depute more contingents if required at the necessary points.

http://www.thenews.com.pk/daily_detail.asp?id=137850