KARACHI: The President of Karachi Chamber of Commerce and Industry (KCCI), Agha Shahab Ahmed Khan, and Chairman of the Businessmen Group (BMG) and a former president of the KCCI, Siraj Kassam Teli, have said that ensuring foolproof security in Karachi is a challenging task as it is the financial and industrial hub of the country with a population of around 22 million people.
They said it was a city that also received a substantial influx of people from all over the country every year due to rising urbanization so the federal and provincial governments would have to look into the possibility of enhancing allocations and ensuring availability of latest equipment to LEAs in order to save the city from terrorism.
While strongly condemning the attack on the Pakistan Stock Exchange, they paid glowing tribute to the private security guards, the policemen and the Rangers for rapidly thwarting the terrorist strike, stopping them from entering the PSX building and effectively exterminating all of the terrorists within minutes, saving the stock exchange from a grave incident which the entire business and industrial community highly appreciated. They said any terrorist strike in Karachi would send a negative message to the world about Pakistan because this city played a significant role in the economic development of the entire country. They urged the decision makers to ensure stringent security all over the city and pay special attention to all the issues of Karachi.
BMG chairman and KCCI president said that the business and industrial community highly admired the bravery and patriotism of the security guards, police and Rangers who risked their lives to save PSX, its members and staff from being held hostage by a few terrorists.
They said that the security guards and policemen undoubtedly played a commendable role on the frontline while the Rangers also responded swiftly to provide the required backup that led to dealing with a very serious situation effectively within a matter of minutes.
If those terrorists had not faced strong resistance from the brave security guards and policemen, they would have easily entered the PSX premises and attained their filthy objectives, they said.
All the brave security guards and policemen must receive handsome rewards as a token of appreciation for their patriotism, loyalty and dedication which would certainly encourage others to emulate while the heirs to the martyrs must also be compensated, the BMG chairman and the KCCI president said. They also offered their heartfelt condolences to the bereaved families of the martyrs.
Siraj Teli and Agha Shahab said that after thoroughly analyzing the PSX terrorism incident, the law enforcement agencies must accordingly revisit their security strategies being followed to secure all the sensitive installations/localities in the city and must also focus on further strengthening their intelligence network as it was a matter of grave concern that four heavily armed terrorists in a private car succeeded in easily reaching a sensitive locality in broad daylight without being intercepted.
Stringent security measures had to be adopted at all the sensitive localities across the city while the policemen must go through rigorous training and be groomed in such a manner that they become capable of promptly obstructing and apprehending such elements way before they reached their targets which would certainly help in saving Karachi from such incidents in future, they added.
They further underscored the need to implement police reforms which must focus on thoroughly defining the administrative and operational controls while the capacity building of police department must also be prioritized, and all the recruitments must strictly be done on the basis of merit, and criminologists should be engaged along with the use of latest technologies to analyze and investigate such incidents.
Copyright Business Recorder, 2020
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