Finding no job to do, the
Special Investigation Group (SIG) which became functional
to fight ‘terrorism’ from January, is dealing
with only three petty cases of the human smuggling to
keep itself ‘busy’.
The SIG was set up in December last year with much hype
to ‘fight terrorism and carrying out special assignments’.
Since becoming functional in January this year, the SIG
officials have no credit of carrying out any significant
task so far.
The Passport Cell of the Federal Investigation Agency
(FIA), which is supposed to deal with the cases of human
trafficking, has referred three ‘major cases’
to the SIG for investigation as it has no other job to
do right now.The three cases, which have been referred
to the SIG, involve a few million rupees, can be investigated
by the Passport Cell of the FIA.
The first case (C/75/2002) referred to the SIG involves
Rs 2 million and five suspected human smugglers. The second
case (C/315/2002) involving Rs 1.3 million is against
three human smugglers while the third case (C/06/2001)
involves Rs 4 million against three human smugglers. In
all these three cases the accused are absconding.
An official of the FIA’s Passport Cell disclosed
that the cases have been referred to the SIG on the directives
of the Director General of the agency to keep the (SIG)
officials ‘busy and check their performance’.
He, however, lamented that the Director General did not
take into account the cases of the big fish like Malik
Bashir and Hamid Zaman Associates which made every reason
to be referred to the SIG if its officials were to be
kept ‘busy’.
Interestingly, a Deputy Director of the SIG revealed that
they were still under a ‘rigorous training’
and it had yet to become functional as they did not ‘possess
essential training and equipment’.
“The SIG officials are still being trained at the
FIA’s Academy in Islamabad”, he said, adding
that they have been given a few special assignments as
a test case. The first-ever Special Investigation Group
(SIG) has been set up ‘exclusively to combat terrorism,
check illegal cash flows and smash organised crime syndicates’.
Officials of the American intelligence agency FBI and
the Scotland Yard specially flew to the Sahala Police
Training School in the last quarter of the year 2003 to
impart ‘the most modern training to a batch of 50
personnel of the SIG on handling the emergency situations’.
The first batch of the SIG comprises personnel from the
intelligence agencies, police, army officials of the Special
Services Group (SSG) and senior FIA officials. The SIG
is headed by the FIA Director General.
The SIG officials have been provided modern training especially
in the field of information collection about the terrorists
and especially the most wanted terrorists and detection
of the weapons of mass destruction.
The SIG personnel can be sent anywhere in the country
if the Federal government feels that a particular incident
might be linked to the ‘international or trans-national
terrorism’.
The SIG agents have been empowered to arrest the terrorists
already named in the FIRs. Besides monitoring suspected
terrorist groups and members, the SIG will also help,
where necessary, the provincial police forces to combat
major crimes.
The SIG, having an initial budget of Rs 110 million, is
expected to co-operate with other law enforcement agencies
and to specifically assist the FIA in its development
and ‘implementation of a Federal counter-terrorism
plan’.
The SIG has a close liaison with the Immigration Wing
to control the entry and exit of the suspected and known
terrorists from Pakistan. The SIG members are only answerable
to their field commanders rather than the police officials
while the field commanders are accountable to the SIG
Commandant in Islamabad.
The SIG was established with a huge sum of money to counter
terrorism but it has got itself engaged in petty assignments
like the abovementioned three cases.
“The SIG has been allocated huge funds and provided
necessary training and equipment, yet its officials at
the helm of affairs lack vision to determine their priorities”,
an official who got training conceded.
