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'Security forces ill-equipped to check urban violence'
 Inadequate training, lack of resources, corruption and absence of transparency are responsible for the inability of Pakistan's security forces to effectively counter militant groups engaged in urban violence. According to a report prepared by Christine Fair, for the US Army under a Rand Corporation programme, there is "immense distrust between the police and the policed", while intelligence-sharing arrangements among state and federal law enforcement agencies are "deficient". She writes that the public perceives the police as an "occupying force" and many police activities have exacerbated the gulf between the people and the police. The cordon and research method used in Karachi, for example, felt humiliating to residents, increased public distrust of the security forces, and provided a system whereby individuals could manipulate the security apparatus to execute vendettas. Fair, now head of the South Asia programme at the US Institute of Peace, believes that Pakistan's experience with urban violence should focus the attention of US policymakers. Pakistan, she points out, is being treated as a capable partner in the war against terrorism. Sectarian violence and other internal security threats only destabilise Pakistan and interact "synergistically" with Pakistan-based militant outfits operating in Indian-held Kashmir and beyond India's hinterland. Posted by: Fred 2005-02-20 |
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