LAHORE: The Punjab police badly need to equip themselves with modernday drone technology and the Armoured Personnel Carriers (APCs) for launching effective ground operations in inaccessible Katcha areas, while, in comparison, Sindh police is better equipped for taking on networks of hardened criminals operating from the hard areas.

According to the latest reports, Sindh police have a clear edge over the Punjab police when it comes to resources to fight the hardened criminals in the Katcha areas stretching along the river Indus, marked by forests, bushes and rugged terrain.

Although the Katcha areas extend to many districts of the central and southern Sindh, the districts such as Kashmore, Ghotki, Shikarpur and Jacobabad are particularly notorious for high prevalence of crimes like dacoity, kidnap for ransom and tribal conflicts.On the other hand, in Punjab the Kacha areas of Rajanpur, Dera Ghazi Khan and Rahim Yar Khan are infested with gangs involved in kidnap for ransom, murder and other heinous crimes.

An official says that such gangs of criminals could be never eradicated completely, despite many operations conducted by the law enforcement agencies (LEAs), mainly because most parts of the Katcha area are hard to access for the LEAs.

He says the dacoits gangs in these areas are equipped with heavy and sophisticated weapons, including mortars, rocket-propelled grenades (RPGs) and even anti-aircraft guns, which they use to target police and other LEAs. He adds that such weapons have been used to even blow up armoured vehicles in many instances, in the past.

Given the situation, he says, the Punjab police high-ups believe that drone technology and the APCs could play an effective role in the fight against the hardened criminals and terrorists belonging to various banned outfits residing in the `inaccessible` Katcha areas ofbothprovinces.

Recently, he says, the Punjab government approved provision of four new APCs to Rahim Yar Khan and the Rajanpur police to launch operations against the hardened criminals and theterrorists infiltrating the Katcha areas from Dera Ismail Khan in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa.

Currently, he says, the RY Khan and Rajanpur districts police have five APCs each, which are insufficient, keeping in view the scale of criminal and terrorist activities in the Katcha areas.

Of these vehicles, each of the districts has three `tracked APCs` for off-road mobility in the Katcha area, while others are `wheeled APCs`.

On the other hand, in Sindh, Kashmor and Shikarpur districts police have 18 modern APCs each, most of them tracked, for deployment in the Katcha areas ofthe province.

To a question, the official says that tracked vehicles are more effective in the rugged areas having rough terrain.

`The modern tracked APCs can operate better in difficult terrains, such as mud, sand and uneven ground, where wheeled vehicles may get stuck,` the official says, adding that the Punjab government lags behind in equipping its police force with tracked APCs.

In the past, the Punjab police had a bitter experience when one of its APCs got stuck in mud in the Katcha area, providing an opportunity to the criminals to strike and inflict a heavy loss of life on the force.

About the drone technology, the official says that Sindh police are usingdrones having the capacity to deliver explosive payload against the criminals, declaring it a big shift in security paradigm due to a change in technology of surveillance and operational modes.

He says such modern drones carrying explosives are being used by Sindh police in search and rescue missions. He adds that the drones being used by Sindh police are also equipped with thermal cameras and high-resolution optical sensors, while they are being also used to fire small mortars to hit the hideouts of the criminals in the inaccessible Katcha areas.

Meanwhile, he says, Punjab police are using drones for surveillance only.

The official says that the Punjab police avoid launching operations deep into the inaccessible areas for lack of the latest technology. However, the police have managed to develop infrastructure to set up posts and checkpoints in such areas, he adds.

He says the police are also constructing soling tracks to improve access and mobility in the challenging terrain of the Katcha areas.

The establishment of such infrastructure is a part of a broader strategy to launch a massive operation, supported by the provincial government, to clear the Katcha areas of hardened criminals and terrorists.