Karachi Police unit conducts mock rescue drill in urban flooding

KARACHI: The Urban Flooding Rescue Unit of Karachi Police conducted a mock drill at Manora to demonstrate its capability to rescue people in case of flooding in the city, ARY News reported on Wednesday.

The special rescue unit of police, formed with DIG Maqsood Ahmed as its head, demonstrated its capability to rescue the people trapped in urban flooding in a mock drill at Karachi’s Manora island.

DIG Police Maqsood Ahmed talking on the occasion said that according to weather forecast the monsoon season will bring more rainfall. “We are prepared to tackle any contingency or flooding situation in city.”

“The commandos of the Urban Flooding Rescue Unit are trained and they have got the life guard’s training from experts,” the DIG security said.

“The rescue unit will be on guard at the low-lying areas of the city with its special boats,” the police officer said.

“All units will be on alert under the security and emergency division of police,” he added.

Earlier, the city police chief had issued a contingency plan for protection of life and property of citizens in the monsoon season.

Additional I.G. Karachi Imran Yaqoob Minhas had dispatched the monsoon contingency plan to DIGs while pointing out heavy losses of life and property in the devastating monsoon spell in previous year urging for effective measures to save precious human lives.

The police chief had directed for formation of district emergency response centres and indication of the low-lying and other vulnerable areas in the city.

It is to be mentioned here that heavy rainfall in previous year wreaked havoc with Karachi causing heavy losses of life.

Pakistan Meteorological Department (PMD) has warned against urban flooding in major cities in Sindh and Punjab and flash flooding in hill torrents of Azad Kashmir, KP and Punjab due to some heavy rainfall events expected during the upcoming monsoon.