CCPO Karachi rejects CCTV footage issued by city govt

Pakistan

CCPO Karachi rejects CCTV footage issued by city govt

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07 January,2010 07:29 pm

Capital City Police Officer (CCPO) Karachi Waseem Ahmed on Thursday rejected the CCTV footage released by City District Government yesterday saying that he did not visit the command and control centre on 10th of Muharram. He revealed that he had directed Police not to open fire on the miscreants.Talking in Dunya News show Policy Matters, CCPO Karachi said the footage released by the city district government is not based on reality. I did not visit the so-called command and control centre on 10th of Muharram. I was there a day before but not on 10th. He questioned authenticity of the cameras installed saying that they cannot be used for security purposes. The picture quality of the footages is very poor. It cant be used for security purposes as we cant identify the people by focusing a specific person. On the contrary, he said the police have identified some 25 people based on the footage.Waseem Ahmed told that he stopped Police from opening fire on miscreants due to the sensitivity of the incident. I ordered police not to open fire on rioters because it was a religious and highly sensitive incident. If we had opened fire on them, it would have triggered riots all across the country. However, I had urged them to use tear gas to disperse the angry mob. Police had left the area and fire brigade vehicles were barred from entering the affected area after the blast in central mourning procession of Yaum-e-Ashur in Karachi. Dunya News received another CCTV footage of the incident on Wednesday recorded by City District Government Karachi.According to the received footage, Police had evacuated the area seven minutes after the blast and even fire brigade vehicles were not allowed to enter the affected area where several buildings and markets were torched.City Nazim Karachi Mustafa Kamal has also rejected allegations leveled by Interior Minister Sindh Dr. Zulfiqar Mirza who said that the city government released only the footage according to its own will. He told that the command and control system was handed over to Police on 10th of Muharram.