#ChotuGang

THIS was hardly the teaser the Punjab police were looking for. The force has spent the last fortnight trying to somehow get hold of the infamous Chotoo gang in the kacha area of southern Punjab bordering Sindh and Balochistan. This action has come at a time when the government has declared its intentions of carrying out an ‘operation’ against the terrorists. It was presumed that the operation would at some point also target common criminals.

At this crucial juncture, a debate was on as to what role was to be assigned to the police department in the fight prescribed under the National Action Plan (NAP). There was one group that was totally disillusioned with the police’s ability and capacity to play more than an occasional errand boy in the scheme. Even that part was to be assigned to your everyday policeman in the face of considerable risk. The theory saw the police condemned as part of the problem — perhaps a reason for NAP to work out a solution to the multifaceted law and order situation.

There was another school though which appeared to base its argument on reality. It stressed with a lot of sense that the police had to be central to the campaign for uprooting terrorism and other crimes in Punjab. Indeed, a case was presented for utilising police expertise that had not been properly tapped into so far for one reason or another. Not least, the senior police officers were heard frequently murmuring about the dire need of restoring the prestige and morale of the force.