Not easy to live in these times. Excruciating inflation and damning power outages on one hand and the terrorist hits on the other have put a limit on breathing space for the people. Our security agencies are perhaps meandering between the inability and, or, incompetence as to handle the situation. What makes the whole situation more precarious is that apart from the terrorists, there are other criminal elements currently not under watch, giving them room to manoeuvre the situation to their advantage.
The provincial metropolis city of Lahore witnessed four bank robberies in a period of 10 days with a loss of millions. Criminal gangs find them to be an easy prey due to lax security measures. While security needs to be beefed up on behalf of the banks, it also makes sense that the law enforcement agencies take the lead in nipping these gangs down. Banks are legally bound to provide sufficient security in their premises, but they shouldn’t be expected to turn banks into a garrison as seemed the intent of instructions issued by the DIG Operations the other day. These robberies are not limited to banks alone. Markets and peaceful citizenry too have not been spared by this menace with burglary, breaking and entering and robberies happening on a regular routine. It would not be prudent to ask them to walk around with professionally trained guards and have bunkers outside their houses, just in case.
On the other hand, the banks must comply with all legal obligations with regards to the security requirements, like coordinating with police in maintaining and verifying background of guards, their training, medical fitness, video surveillance, and such. What police needs to do is to work out a more practical solution than ordering a shutdown of business for banks. A proper implementation of the rules already promulgated might just do the needful. Scrutiny of guards must be a precondition before their hiring while a rigorous investigation methodology can work as deterrence for these criminal gangs without any burden on the banking industry.