Security tightened around foreign establishments

The city police have tightened security measures around sensitive foreign establishments in Karachi after recent bomb explosions that claimed 23 lives and injured scores of others.
Sources said that plainclothes police officials had been posted at important places where people congregate to offer prayers and to perform other religious functions.
Places/offices of public dealings, including banking and non-banking financial institutions, commercial and financial institutions, railway stations and airports, schools and colleges which caters to the needs of foreign students, hotels and eateries and public recreational places have also been identified as vulnerable places and placed under surveillance.
Number of Rangers have also been increased to provide support to police functionaries.
The sources said that all foreign missions having offices in Karachi were now protected and vigilance cameras were being installed at hidden places to record movement of vehicles and pedestrians.
In the meantime, police sources are still groping in the dark about the people, that have blurred faces of the suspects, photographed by the hidden cameras around the Pakistan American Cultural Center on Wednesday when the blast had occurred.
They said that after installing the cameras the police never found time to check the functioning of these cameras. They did not even clean its glasses and checked visibility through its lenses.
The city police have installed hidden cameras at different sensitive places, including foreign missions, hotels and public places frequently in use, but have never checked quality of its functioning.
The functioning of these cameras is sensitive and maintenance is tedious. Those who know the operation of these cameras said that the police forgot all about the cameras after its installation and left its maintenance to ill-trained police constables who did not do their jobs.
The sources said that the sketches of suspects released were confusing and were not likely to take the trackers to the suspects.
In the opinion of retired senior police officials there is a need to screen police officers and ranks manning police intelligence department so that police information did not leak out to criminals.
Meanwhile, driving through sensitive areas has become difficult because of frequent and unnecessary checking of vehicles by police. The unnecessary checking in peak hours creates traffic jams on busy streets, as could be experienced on Shahrae Faisal.
The spill over effect of one traffic jam could be experienced on Friday on other adjoining streets.
Political support to the provincial government from religious political parties was lukewarm, sources said, adding that many suspected religious leaders were also under strict police observation.