Karachi Airport attack: Sindh government restructures Special Branch of police

In the wake of Jinnah International Airport attack, Sindh Government has re-structured the Special Branch of Sindh police. Political wing would be renamed as "Intelligence wing" with few more information gathering components, Business Recorder learnt on Thursday.
Jinnah International Airport came under attack on June 8, this year that claimed over two dozen lives. The federal and Sindh governments both were criticised for the security lapse. The Sindh government authorities had held over a dozen meetings to discuss the airport attack, its losses, and security loopholes. Along with other changes, the Sindh police officials had proposed to re-structure the Special Branch, sources said.
The proposal was approved during a high level meeting held at Chief Minister' House a few days back. Sindh Chief Minister Syed Qaim Ali Shah gave a green signal to police officials and asked them to make the proposal and get it approved by the authorities concerned of Home department, sources said.
Later, the said proposal was approved by the authorities at Home Department, sources added. Special Branch is the most important section of Sindh Police with mandate to gather the secret and sensitive information through many ways, sources said. It is headed by Additional Inspector General (AIG) as provincial in-charge, Deputy Inspector General at Karachi level and SSPs at Sukkur, Hyderabad, Larkana and Mirpurkhas. The Special Branch consists of four wings including Technical, Survey and Foreign Security Survey, Security and Political, all are headed by SSPs, sources said.
Under the approved proposal, the "Political Wing" would be renamed as "Intelligence Wing" run by a SSP. The Intelligence wing would get few components from Survey and Foreign Security Survey, Security wings. Four major components of the survey wing including checking of international passengers, checking of airport hotel where a portion is allocated for Indian passengers, checking of all hotels, guest houses of city and supervise the activities of local and international guests would be assigned to "Intelligence wing", sources said.
Now, survey wing only conducts security surveys of key points of the city. Sources said that there are 120 officially declared key points in the port city. The wing team has to conduct surveys of key points and submit to DIG Special Branch. It has been decided in a meeting recently held at DIG Special Branch that the staff of survey wing already working on four major components would also be shifted to Intelligence wing, sources said.