The capital police who are tasked with protecting the lives of 1.5 million inhabitants of the city that has faced 21 terrorist attacks from 1995 to 2010 claiming the lives of 235 people, including 51 security officials, have been provided with only four explosive detectors.
The capital police who have set up hundreds of police pickets in various parts of the city still use the manual method of checking suspects whenever there is a threat of suicide attacks. An official source said a few months ago, the capital police sent a summary to the Ministry of Interior, requesting a hundred explosive detectors to guard the entire population of the capital as well as hundreds of diplomats and VIPs. Because of the lack of equipment, the police have not thwarted even a single suicide attack, an official source told Pakistan Today. The source said the Ministry of Interior had only provided this equipment to the Diplomatic Protection Department (DPD) of the police.
Despite possible threats of suicide attacks, the authorities are only concentrating on the security of VVIPs as is evident from the fact that around 2,500 constables available for over 1 million population of the federal capital are not equipped with explosive detectors, he said. It is learnt that the capital police have set up around 105 police pickets across the city, but most of the police deployed at these pickets are not equipped even with metal detectors.
The Islamabad police have been provided only with four explosive detectors though their requirement is around 40 to 50 explosive detectors to cope with the current threat.
“We have sent a request to the government in this regard and it will improve the capacity of the police if it is approved,” the official said and added that from 1995 to 2010 around 20 terrorist attacks had occurred in Islamabad in which around 234 people lost their lives, including 51 security officials, and 789 were injured. The main terrorist attacks that occurred in the city include the suicide attack at the Marriot Hotel parking lot on January 26, 2007, at the district courts in Islamabad on July 17, 2007, at Danish Embassy on June 2, 2008, at Melody Market on July 6, 2008, at the Marriot Hotel on September 20, 2009, and in F-Block on April 3, 2009.
