Safe City Project in Pakistan’s Quetta helps crack 140 cases amid persistent security concerns

QUETTA: Authorities in Pakistan’s southwestern Balochistan province have apprehended suspects in nearly 140 cases using a newly installed camera network in Quetta, a senior official informed this week, though security concerns persist amid ongoing street crimes and militant attacks.
The Safe City Project, aimed at establishing an advanced monitoring system, was initiated over a decade ago and completed at a total cost of Rs7.5 billion ($27 million) before its inauguration in December 2023.
Similar systems have been installed in other Pakistani urban centers, but the need in Quetta was greater due to Balochistan’s volatile security situation and ongoing low-level insurgency, with separatist groups accusing the state of unfairly exploiting the region’s mineral resources. Pakistani officials deny these allegations, asserting they have been undertaking several development projects for the benefit of the local population.
The Baloch separatist groups carried out grenade attacks coinciding with Pakistan’s Independence Day this month, targeting stalls and stores selling Pakistani flags and other merchandise to those celebrating the occasion.
“Since we launched the Safe City Project, you can see for yourself that there hasn’t been any [major] terrorism incident in Quetta,” Dr. Tariq Hussain Bizenjo, the project director, told Arab News while sitting in his office, a building filled with dozens of screens showing different parts of Quetta with a provision to zoom in and take a closer look at vehicles and people on the roads.
He added that incidents of street crimes, such as car and motorbike snatching, had also declined in recent months.
“Nearly 140 cases have been reported and registered through FIRs [first information reports], and we have successfully resolved them,” he continued, responding to a question about the system’s effectiveness in identifying and apprehending suspects.
He noted that some of the criminal cases resolved included murders.
Bizenjo said the police had provided his department with the criminal records of nearly 10,000 people, which had been fed into the system.
“When they move in front of any of our cameras, it generates an alert here about the location of these individuals,” he added.
Speaking about the coverage of the monitoring system, he said the authorities had installed nearly 900 cameras at key locations in the city, including its four entry and exit points.
His department has also hired a team of 180 people, including 70 police personnel, with the command and control center operating round the clock to address street crimes or militant attacks.
Discussing the project’s outcomes since its launch last year, a security analyst in Balochistan acknowledged there had been no major militant attack in Quetta since the beginning of the year.
However, he noted that the Safe City Project does not cover the entire city, pointing out incidents of grenade lobbing, target killings and other street crimes.
“At least the Safe City Project should be expanded to cover the entire Quetta city and Gwadar, which the government considers the gateway to Pakistan’s prosperity,” Mujeeb Ahmed, who has covered crime in the province for two decades, told Arab News.
“Apart from Quetta, the advanced surveillance system should also be installed on highways and tourist spots, which are not safe for travelers in the province,” he added.