"Pakistan, a nation under siege." "Almost every day in towns and cities across the country, the Taliban attack." "Bombings, assassinations, kidnappings." "Even schools have been a target." "Pakistanis are paying with their lives." "It is a war." "We have suffered thousands of civilian casualties." "Entire districts of the country's largest city, Karachi, have been infiltrated by the Taliban." "The last line of defence, a police force that was never intended to fight terrorism." "We're looking for a terrorist group." "They're involved in target killings." "They are planning something big." "They're fighting an enemy intent on destroying anyone that gets in the way of their jihad or holy war." "We follow the so-called Taliban hunters, the men would risk their lives every day on the frontline." "Almost 24 million people live in" "Karachi." "It's Pakistan's commercial centre and one of the largest cities in the world." "But it's also become one of the most dangerous cities." "I've been reporting from here for over ten years, and I've seen how the escalation of terrorist violence is threatening the whole city." "Now I want to see how the police are responding." "I arrived in Karachi this morning and already there's been news of a police officer murdered in a suspected Taliban attack." "Mohammed Iqbal had been receiving death threats from militants." "He was gunned down in a drive-by shooting just before dawn at the end of a 14-hour shift." "With so many police here, the funeral prayers themselves are a target." "The fightback is led by the police, who have become known as the Taliban hunters." "With a force of just 15,000 officers, they police a city of 24 million people." "And they've lost 156 of their colleagues in just one year in the fight against the Taliban." "Specialist Superintendent Ijaz heads this branch of the Taliban hunters and plans antiterrorist raids from his base in central Karachi." "His team monitor militant activity across the city from this surveillance centre." "Could you point out the areas where the Taliban has a strong presence?" "Urangi, Baldir, Saeedabad, Surjani, Sarabghot, so basically the slums are encircling the city." "These slums, they are very dangerous." "It's from the slums that the Taliban organise their attacks." "Officer Ijaz shows me shocking footage of the Taliban's campaign of terror." "These indiscriminate violent attacks keep Karachi's citizens living in a constant state of fear." "But it's target killings or assassinations that are the Taliban's most common tool of terror, with almost 200 reported last year." "Here, the officer shows me CCTV footage of two Shia preachers being gunned down by" "Taliban members on motorbikes." "Police, journalists and anyone opposing Taliban ideology is a potential target." "Another attack, this gunman strikes and drives away unchallenged." "On average, ten people die from violence in Karachi every day, many of them at the hands of the Taliban." "Yet Ijaz's men are ill-equipped to fight an enemy with growing power." "They are fighting a full fledged war." "So they are not equipped and they are not trained for it yet." "They were trained for traditional policing, but it is not traditional policing." "They are fighting terrorism." "Inadequate funding means the Taliban hunters on the ground have no special training and lack basic equipment." "Many officers carry ageing weapons and others work sometimes without essentials, like bullet-proof vests." "Ahmed Rashid is one of Pakistan's most respected experts on militancy." "He lectures on terrorism at universities around the world." "First of all, there are far too few policemen in a city like Karachi to deal with the situation." "You know, the numbers are appalling." "The police is hugely underfunded, underpaid, lacking proper education," "I mean, it's very, very sad." "It's estimated that robberies cost" "Karachi millions of dollars every day." "The Taliban is behind much of this, having forced previously powerful organised gangs out of their territory." "Are the Taliban using Karachi as a kind of cash cow?" "With kidnapping, crime, bank robberies, fundraising, they carried on their Taliban activity in Karachi." "The Taliban hunters have been tipped off about two suspected militants thought to be planning an attack." "They've been planning this raid for four weeks." "From the moment they leave their compound, they know they're vulnerable to Taliban lookouts and informants." "We are looking for activists of an extremist group." "They are planning something big." "They are here with arms and ammunition." "It's the" "Taliban?" "Yeah, they say that we are from TTP." "The Pakistani Taliban or" "TTP, have taken control of much of the territory on the outskirts of" "Karachi in recent years." "The team is heading into one of the most notorious slums, Ittehad town, a TTP strong hold." "The Taliban have their sleeper cells inside Ittehad town and many other areas, actually." "Our informer, he has proper knowledge of what they have done in the past." "They were involved in target killings of police officers and law enforcement agencies." "As we enter Ittehad town in the early hours of the morning, the streets are empty." "The final approach towards the target house has to be on foot." "The lights are turned off and the team creep forward with a night-vision camera." "Taliban watchmen have been known to sound an alarm as a call to arms for local comrades, who then flood the area to attack police." "If spotted, the team will only have moments to leave the area." "No-one knows how many Talibs are inside and who could be watching." "With everyone in place, officer Ijaz gives the signal." "The men are disarmed, their weapons seized." "The priority now is getting out of the slum." "As soon as we got in there, there was the sound of a kind after larm." "A few of the officers told me that these Taliban members sound the alarm to tell people in the area that the police are here." "That's why we have to make a quick exit right now." "We have to get out of the area." "Sometimes there is resistance from the local public." "We've managed well." "We were very brief and quick." "So that ended well." "It could have got very dangerous if we stayed any longer?" "Yes, exactly." "Going into the area, that's not dangerous." "Leaving the area is always full of Ricks." "Then they are alarmed, everybody knows." "They might ambush the motorcade if those guys are important for them." "They will try to get them released from the police custody." "The squad believe the suspects were in the final stages of planning to kidnap a prominent businessman, who they'd been shadowing in Karachi." "They'll be left in their cells for the next five days." "Officer Ijaz says the silence makes prisoners more eager to talk." "But with every arrest comes the renewed risk of a revenge attack." "A regular visit to the graveside of his former boss provides a stark reminder that even the most senior officer can be killed by the Taliban." "He was a hero and he was a hero of Karachi police, and as far as the dangers or risks or hazards of this job are concerned, myself, my fellow colleagues, they are working day in and day out to eradicate this" "terrorism." "Officer Ijaz had been a close friend." "After the murder, it was he who became the new face of the Taliban hunters." "He's a prominent target, and the Taliban can strike at any time." "On constant watch is officer Akbar, who sees it as his personal duty to keep the boss alive." "In the five years he's been in the force, Akbar has got used to the threat from the Taliban." "For over a decade, the Taliban and its affiliate groups have waged war on the Pakistani people." "Until recently, the militants were largely based in rural areas in the north." "Last summer, the government began its most far-reaching anti-Taliban operation to date." "The army forcing them out of their stronghold in North Waziristan." "By the spring of 2015, the government was claiming victory, but the military campaign had simply shifted the geography of war." "The movement of terrorists southwards meant that Pakistan cities were the Taliban's major targets with Karachi, the greatest prize of all." "The Taliban suspects captured in the raid have been held in silence for two days." "Whenever they are in police custody, within 24 hours or 48 hours, they lose their psychological strength." "Karachi police have been accused of physical mistreatment and even torture of prisoners." "A 2014 Human" "Rights Watch report also said there had been extra judicial killings and mystery disappearances of terrorist suspects." "Officer Ijaz insists that his men employ nothing more than, as he puts it, a little arm-twisting." "Is it an effective method of extracting information, can you get reliable information that way?" "They are hardened criminals, they are hard-core extremists." "You cannot offer them a chocolate to get information out of them." "It is clear to me that there is some indifference to the human rights of suspects here." "Perhaps a response to the constant threat of revenge attacks against the police and their families." "Officer Ijaz is one of the Taliban's top targets." "The family home must be guarded 24 hours a day." "You have armed guards outside so your kids must see these armed men with guns." "Are they aware of the work that you do?" "Yeah, they are aware of the work, like they know that I'm a police officer." "From the day, when they were born, they were living with these gunmen, so they can't tell me the difference." "The constant danger to their children is forcing his wife to reconsider their future." "We are seriously thinking to leave this Karachi place." "If Ijaz is not leaving it, at least I would be thinking to leave it within six to seven months because it is pretty unsafe for me." "So, basically, Officer Ijaz would stay working here and you would move to another city?" "Yeah, probably, probably." "It is not only police and their families that are targets." "Business owners, politicians, in fact anyone with obvious wealth is at risk." "This video was sent to the family of a local businessman." "Karim, not his real name, was kidnapped by the Taliban." "He was rescued from his kidnappers but his family have asked that we conceal his identity." "It was just another morning in Karachi's business district, but on this day, the Taliban lay in wait." "Here, this is the white Corolla, this is arriving, this is the factory gate." "He is arriving for work?" "He is arriving - this was in the morning." "These two guys were standing here." "And as soon as he stopped the car, there is one guy toward it is driving seat." "This guy snatched the keys from the driver." "And as soon as they drag him out, they place him inside the car and sped away." "After a month in captivity, Karim was freed during a police shootout." "His kidnappers are still awaiting trial." "The latest available statistics show that 132 cases of kidnapping were reported in Karachi in 2014." "With an estimated $4 million handed over in ransom money to the Taliban." "The kidnappers have little to fear from the courts, even if they are charged." "Recently released figures show that of 115 cases of kidnap over a 12-month period, there wasn't a single conviction." "At the time of filming, of 286 suspected Taliban members behind bars in the city's main prison, just three had been convicted." "I think the reason that the judiciary has failed over these last ten years is because they are scared." "I mean, we have had numerous lawyers, judges, Defence Counsels, witnesses being killed by the militants, so you get kidnappings taking place, shootings taking place, and generally I think there is an air of terror." "At his office in Karachi, Provincial Minister Shajeel Memmon admits the current legal system is failing." "Our present judicial system is too slow and the way the cases are, they linger on for years and years." "Attacks in major cities have meant mounting pressure for reform." "The government's response has been the introduction of anti-terrorism courts, with the aim of fast-tracking trials." "For those terrorists from Taliban, Al-Qaeda..." "Are you aware of the conviction rates within those courts?" "I think that there is some betterment in the system." "They are under 6%, it is under 6% conviction rate." "Is that acceptable?" "Obviously, these special courts formed one year ago and things need to, once we want to bring a change, so it needs some time." "The justice system was thrust into the spotlight after last year's attack on a school in Peshawar. 133 children were killed in the massacre at the Army Public School." "Peace rallies were held in every Pakistani town, with the public demanding that more be done to stop the terror." "In response, the government lifted the moratorium on the death penalty, but little else has changed." "Nothing since the Peshawar killings of those students has been done to actually reform, strengthen, modify the judicial system." "We have had a lot of Draconian laws passed that you will be hanged for terrorism on the slightest suspicion, you are guilty until you can prove you are innocent." "But we have" " I mean, you know, these are Draconian laws that have nothing to do with reforming the judicial system." "I'm on my way back to the police compound." "I have heard there have been more raids today and five militants have been shot in a gun battle." "We discover there have been some more arrests, too." "I got to the compound about ten minutes ago and as soon as I got here, I could hear screaming from the interrogation area down there." "You can see two suspects up against the wall right now." "Every time I have asked Officer Ijaz about what he calls "arm-twisting" he's avoided the question." "I'm told I can talk to the two Taliban suspects who were arrested on the raid two days earlier." "The police insisted on parading them into the room with their heads covered." "They require me to conduct my interview with the suspects' identities concealed." "They say it is for the prisoners' safety, as well as their own." "I have no way of knowing how the suspects have been treated by the police." "They tell me they are proud Taliban members and they are apparently eager to talk." "I need to ask you something, Officer Ijaz." "When I arrived at the compound, I did hear some screaming from one of the interrogation rooms." "You have told me in the past, you reference this kind of arm-twisting techniques that you use, what techniques do you use?" "We don't do this." "Not exactly, torture is not a solution to the problem." "If we beat them, we can get whatever we want to." "That is not true." "We try to pressurise them or sometimes we threaten them of dire consequences." "We have to ask them in a harsh manner, obviously." "Officer Ijaz's uncomfortable response may be open to interpretation." "But it is clear he is frustrated by a judicial system that results in very few convictions for terrorism." "Despite their claim of multiple murders, these suspects may never face trial." "The threat from militants is now the single most pressing issue for" "Pakistanis struggling to maintain some sense of normality in their daily lives." "A paramilitary force, they are now joined the fightback." "Last month, two police officers were killed during an anti-terrorist shootout." "Pakistan remain vulnerable to the Taliban who are ever willing to take their war into Pakistan's cities, airports and schools." "Police alone cannot do this job." "If we are strong enough, we will just wipe them out from Karachi and then there will be no threat to police officers." "Obviously, we feel vulnerable sometimes, but that is not the point." "We have to fight it." "There is no other way." "We can't leave the battlefield and run away."