Islamabad:If you want to hit anyone in Pakistan, you don’t have to fight on the ground. If you know using technology, you can achieve your purpose through an air attack by using digital maps.
There are many organizations in the country making such maps. Quite a few international organizations are also involved in making digital maps of sensitive areas of the country.
Sources in these organizations told The News Tribe on the condition of anonymity that it is the responsibility of Survey of Pakistan, a government organization, to make maps of different areas of the country, but many other organizations are also doing this. Even government departments get maps prepared by these organizations, which employ former employees of Survey of Pakistan. Since there is no proper check on these private organizations, they can endanger the country’s security.
The News Tribe correspondents in Islamabad and Sindh say that maps of all districts of Pakistan including details of sensitive installations are available in the market for Rs150,000 to Rs200,000.
Survey of Pakistan has converted old maps into digital ones, which cannot be accessed by anyone without prior clearance from intelligence agencies and the government.
Although private organizations use different measurement than that used by Survey of Pakistan, they can use their maps against the country’s security. Usually these organizations do their work under the garb of making maps for medical and educational purposes.
The digital maps made by Survey of Pakistan have been made on more than 1470 sheets. These maps have been made using the measurement of 1:5000, which means two centimeters on the map represent one kilometer on ground. Those with clearance can buy one sheet for Rs20,000 to Rs25,000, which means complete map of a district can be purchased for Rs1,000,000 to Rs1,200,000.
Private organizations sell complete map of a district for Rs15,000 to Rs31,000. These maps are made using the Geographical Information System Technology, which makes it possible to use these maps for attacking sensitive installations of the country.
Private organizations have made such maps of 35 districts for government departments indicating the medical facilities, educational institutions, worship places and important thoroughfares.
Sources said that some quarters have got students of private engineering universities of Karachi and Khyber Pakhtunkhwa to make detailed maps of more than half districts of the country. This all happened because of the negligence of government departments responsible for taking care of such sensitive matters, sources said.
Those aware of Pakistan’s defence matters and experts say that not only can these digital maps help plan aerial attacks but they can also help in planning of ground attacks which can cause large scale damage.
Officials have recovered some chips from Raymond Davis, who killed two Pakistanis in Lahore recently, that can be used to identify targets in drone attacks. The technology under which these chips work uses data supplied by such maps.
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