Published on, Sept. 26 -- September 26, 2025 12:51 PM

The Katcha belt along the Indus has always been a battlefield-not of armies, but of police forces and criminal gangs who know the forests, river channels, and mudflats like the back of their hand.

In Sindh, the police have slowly turned the tide. Equipped with drones that not only watch but strike and tracked armored carriers that glide across mud and sand, they now chase gangs with technology once reserved for armies. Drones with thermal cameras spot outlaws hiding in thickets. Some even drop small mortars on their hideouts. Criminals who once ruled with rocket launchers and anti-aircraft guns now face a new enemy in the sky.

Punjab, meanwhile, still struggles. Its police enter the...