EDITORIAL: Twenty years on, the police forces of Punjab and Sindh have yet to decisively win the war against dacoits who are said to be firmly ensconced in the riverine areas of the Indus. There have been a number of anti-dacoit operations but victory in the end was always of the dacoits. And over the years the dacoits’ strength has boosted and they seem to be acquiring the sympathetic support of anti-state outfits such as Baloch Liberation Army in, for example, Rajanpur district, southern Punjab, and a cause to be defended by the socio-economic segments of civil society.
On the other hand, the official response to this multidimensional enigma has been to fight the dacoits with guns and defeat them on the ground, where success has been a receding actuality. The only option the concerned police authorities say they have to fight and defeat the riverine dacoits’ gangs is modern military equipment and special anti-riverine police groups.
Earlier this month when dacoits blunted a Sindh police campaign by killing a DSP, two SHOs and five cops and holding 25 policemen hostage in Ghotki district, Chief Minister Murad Ali Shah proposed the setting up of ‘Riverine Anti-Dacoit Force’. And now after police lost an encounter with dacoits in the riverine area of Rajanpur the Punjab police high-ups have sought a Rs 5 billion financial package to be in position to effectively deal with the challenge of the dacoits’ gangs.
Since the killing of dacoits’ chief and most wanted criminal, Khuda Bakhsh Lound, they have threatened to attack police stations in the area to avenge his death. And this is not a hallow threat; while the police force may require specialized training, the dacoits, on the other hand, are hardened criminals. The request for Rs 5 billion package is now on the table of Chief Minister Pervaiz Elahi, who seems to be sympathetic to the police cause.
Fighting these criminals, whose principal source of income through which they buy the latest weapons from various sources is hostage-taking, is a huge challenge. In the report, the police high-ups have conveyed to the government that results could be obtained only by using modern technology as the katcha areas are full of marshes lying along shallower river and creeks and reaching riverbeds needs bullet-proof boats.
However, as police is supplied with latest transport means and modern weapons the concerned authorities are required to dispassionately interpret how and why there are dacoits among the thousands of poor landless peasants who have built their abodes on the riverbeds of the Indus. These dacoits are no Robin Hoods; they are hardened criminals. Fighting and defeating them is indeed a noble cause, but this battle should be multidimensional and fought on a number of fronts.
One, the dacoits should be defeated and disarmed. Two, the third party intervention should be put in place with the help of local chieftains and tribal chiefs, who may successfully persuade the gangs to lay down arms and join the national mainstream. Three, since these riverbeds house thousands of hapless poor farmers who grow crops and make their precarious living the government should make inroads into the riverbeds and introduce socio-economic development schemes, as that is only way – a way that has also been proposed by the police high-ups in their report – to obtain a sustainable and long-lasting solution to eliminate the decades-old criminal activities.
Copyright Business Recorder, 2022