At 4:30am Wednesday morning, Sindh Police’s Special Protection Group (SPG) and Sindh Reserve Police (SRP) launched a targeted search operation in the Shah Faisal Colony. In an hour-long search operation, the police arrested four alleged target killers.
However, insiders in the police department told Pakistan Today that the chalked out plan of searching the marked houses could not materialise due to ‘political pressure’ and it was just a random search.
Senior Superintendent of Police (SSP) East Zone Ahsan Umar, along with 1,000 personnel of SPG and SRP, had entered Shah Faisal Colony for a targeted operation before dawn. The law enforcement personnel marched into the areas of Natha Khan Goth, Shah Faisal Colony No 04, Imambargah-e-Kazmeen, Hazara Chowk and Drigh Road Colony. The Imambargah was encircled and police entered the premises but they could recover nothing.
“The targeted operation soon turned into a random search when the police force entered some parts of Shah Faisal Colony before Wednesday dawn,” police high-ups privy to SSP East told Pakistan Today on condition of anonymity.
The SSP East could not be reached for comments.
However, Sindh Additional Inspector General (AIG) Saud Mirza was unaware of the operation. “Search operations in Karachi are a routine matter now. I have no idea about the operation plans or the result of this operation,” said the AIG.
The preparations for the operation had started Tuesday evening and vehicles carrying SPG commandos started gathering outside SSP East office at Drigh Road. Earlier, the SRP personnel had been called from the interior Sindh and deployed in strife-hit Malir and Landhi. The policemen were seen sitting in trucks waiting for signals from the top to move for an operation.
Before the start of the operation, SRP constable Naveed narrated his story to Pakistan Today. “We were called on emergency basis from interior Sindh around 15 days ago and deployed in Malir and Landhi to control the law and order situation. We are unfamiliar with this city and it is difficult for us to talk with local people as the majority do not know Sindhi,” he said.
“We move to different areas on the directives of police department and our high-ups have directed us to stay in the city until peace is restored. It has been 15 days since I have seen my loved ones and with Ramazan approaching, I want to spend this holy month with my family. But it seems that we cannot even see our children on Eid,” he complained.
