KARACHI: Inspector General of Sindh Police, A.D Khawaja on Monday informed that the Sindh Police is raising a new unit of 1500 personnel in the Counter-Terrorism Department (CTD) that was set up after the initiation of the National Action Plan (NAP).

“The new unit is aimed at bringing further improvements in the Counter-Terrorism Department which has performed well so far,” he said, adding that the unit will include 500 Assistant Sub-Inspectors (ASIs) who will be inducted through the Sindh Public Service Commission.

Khawaja further said that the provincial government has allocated Rs. 320 million this year for revamping Sindh Police’s Special Branch.

“We are working zealously to make the Special Branch an active unit to perform intelligence gathering in an effective manner”, he remarked.

A.D. Khawaja maintained that recruitment in the Sindh Police is being undertaken on merit through National Testing Service (NTS).

“These steps are aimed at building up this force in order to gear this up to effectively tackle the menace of terrorism,” he said.

IG Sindh said that law and order situation in Karachi has improved significantly due to effective actions by police and Rangers.

“Target killing incidents in the city have declined by 70 percent since the start of the action in September 2013, as 442 such incidents had been reported in the past 35 months as compared to 1,227 target killing incidents recorded in the corresponding period before the operation,” the IGP said.