Sindh IGP forms 5-member committee to probe Karachi police office attack

The Sindh police on Saturday constituted a five-member committee to investigate the attack on the Karachi police chief’s office last night and supervise the case’s progress.

The hours-long combat between terrorists and law-enforcement agencies on Friday at the Karachi Police Office located at Sharea Faisal left four people martyred and 19 injured. In contrast, all three terrorists belonging to the banned militant group Tehreek-i-Taliban Pakistan were killed.

An order issued from the office of Sindh Inspector General of Police Ghulam Nabi Memon, available with Dawn.com, was issued today regarding the investigation committee’s composition.

The committee included Sindh Counter Terrorism Department (CTD) Deputy Inspector General of Police (DIGP) Zulfiqar Ali Larik as its chairman while the other members included Karachi South Zone DIGP Irfan Ali Baloch, Crime Investigation Agency DIGP Muhammad Karim Khan, Karachi CTD Operations Senior Superintendent of Police Tariq Nawaz and Karachi CTD Investigation Incharge Raja Umer Khitab.

The order said that the chairman could co-opt any other member required for conducting the investigation.

Security under question

Officials said that just half an hour after sunset, three militants had parked an Indus Corolla car at the KPO entrance before hurling a hand grenade at the gate.

Wearing shalwar kameez, the militants brought with them “three bags of food”, indicating their preparation for a prolonged siege, DIG East-Zone Muquddas Haider, who was among the senior officers leading the operation, had told Dawn on late Friday night.

While officials had initially said the exact number of militants could not be ascertained who attacked the metropolis police chief office at around 7:10pm, Adviser to Sindh Chief Minister Barrister Murtaza Wahab after midnight had shared details of 23 casualties — four martyred and 19 injured — on Twitter.

Multiple explosions were heard during the joint operation, which was completed at 10:48pm, by Pakistan Rangers, army and police personnel.

DIG Haider had said there were three attackers, all clad in shalwar kameez. One of them blew himself up on the fourth floor of the building during the operation, while two others were shot dead on the rooftop, he had said

Taking great exception to the current state of security arrangements at government buildings and installations following the attack, the security administration and provincial government decided to carry out a ‘security audit’ of these facilities while seeing the assault on the law enforcement agency’s headquarters as a serious security lapse.

Officials agreed that the attack on the KPO had raised several questions and for their answers, a ‘proper exercise’ would be needed that included the ‘security audit’ and the plan of action the law enforcement agency was having after the terrorist attacks, mainly on police across Pakistan, had put the security establishment on toes in other parts of the country.