Pakistan’s law enforcement agencies to conduct ‘security audit’ after Karachi police chief's office attacked by TTP terrorists

Pakistan’s law-enforcement agencies and the Sindh government will conduct a “security audit” into the serious security lapses that led to an audacious attack on the office of the Karachi Police chief by heavily-armed Pakistani Taliban terrorists, a media report said on Saturday. The incident took place at 7.10 pm local time on Friday, during which Tehreek-e-Taliban Pakistan (TTP) terrorists stormed the five-storey Karachi Police Office (KPO) building situated in the country’s most populous city.

In the hours-long operation between the Pakistan police commandos and paramilitary soldiers, three TTP terrorists were killed and four others, including three security personnel, also lost their lives. That seems so [a serious security lapse],” a senior member of the provincial administration told the Dawn newspaper. Security officials agreed the attack had raised several questions and a ‘proper exercise’ was needed that included a ‘security audit’, the report said.

A security official told the Dawn newspaper that the recent mosque attack in Peshawar was a wake-up call for law enforcement agencies across the country, and the latest attack on the police headquarters in Karachi was “alarming.” “KPO is not a soft target,” Sharufddin Memon, former chief of the Citizen-Police Liaison Committee (CPLC) and consultant to the Sindh home department was quoted as saying in the report.

“This is a kind of message from the terrorists: ‘we are that close’. It’s a serious security lapse. It’s not a routine terrorist activity. It cannot be ignored. So, I think many things need to be revisited. From the security of our facilities to anti-terror to training of our law enforcement agencies — everything must be rechecked,” he added. Pakistan has been hit by a wave of terrorism, mostly in the country's Khyber Pakhtunkhwa province, but also in Balochistan, the Punjab town of Mianwali, which borders the restive Khyber Pakhtunkhwa province and now in the Sindh province.

On January 30, a Taliban suicide bomber blew himself up during the afternoon prayers in a mosque in Peshawar, killing 101 people and injuring more than 200 others. The suicide bomber disguised himself in a police uniform to sneak into the high-security zone and was riding a motorcycle with a helmet and mask on, a police official said. During the Apex Committee meeting held earlier this month, Pakistan’s civil and military leadership decided to seek Afghan Taliban chief Haibuttallah Akhundzada’s intervention to control the TTP.

In November last year, the TTP called off an indefinite ceasefire agreed with the government in June 2022 and ordered its militants to carry out attacks on the security forces. Pakistan hoped that the Afghan Taliban after coming to power would stop the use of their soil against Pakistan by expelling the TTP operatives but they have apparently refused to do so at the cost of straining ties with Islamabad. The TTP, set up as an umbrella group of several militant outfits in 2007, called off a ceasefire with the federal government and ordered its militants to stage terrorist attacks across the country.

The group, which is believed to be close to Al-Qaeda, has been blamed for several deadly attacks across Pakistan, including an attack on army headquarters in 2009, assaults on military bases, and the 2008 bombing of the Marriott Hotel in Islamabad. In 2014, the Pakistani Taliban stormed the Army Public School in the north-western city of Peshawar, killing at least 150 people, including 131 students.