Pakistan Rangers conducted surgical operations in various areas of the city on Wednesday and arrested more than a dozen suspected gangsters and seized weapons from their possession, as another three people were killed in the ongoing wave of violence in the Karachi. People in some of the areas where the Rangers carried out operations protested against them, saying the action was being taken on the demand of “a government ally” party.
Rangers said they had formally arrested 14 suspects involved in the fresh unrest in the provincial capital and had seized heavy weapons during raids. The paramilitary force also seized drugs, extortion slips, chemicals and other weapons. A Rangers’ spokesman said 79 firearms had been recovered in the day-long search operation that had begun in the wee hours of Wednesday morning in Orangi Town, Old City areas, Old Vegetable Market, Hasan Square and the Khamisoo Goath area of New Karachi.
He said over 100 suspects had been arrested, but most were released after protests from the local community. Despite the surgical operation and arrests, extortionists continued to demand money from traders in Karachi, however. Traders from Aaram Bagh Medicine Market held a demonstration against threats issued to them by extortionists because of non-payment.
WASSAN: Meanwhile, Sindh Home Minister Manzoor Wassan told reporters after the passing out parade of police commandos at Razzqabad Training Centre that some terrorists might have escaped because of the delay in launching the operation, but they would be rounded up after interrogating those who had been arrested in the operation. Wassan later met President Asif Ali Zardari at Aiwan-e-Sadr, who told him that action should not only be fair and across the board, but should also be perceived as fair and across the board.
KILLINGS: The ceaseless violence claimed another three lives on Wednesday, one of them a 16-year-old boy named Zeeshan, who was gunned down by unidentified assailants early in the morning while he was on his way to buy food for Sehr. A body of an unidentified man was found stuffed into a gunny bag from Lyari Nadi. A woman named Shameem was killed when unidentified gunmen opened fire Chakiwara area of Lyari.
Separately, Sindh Chief Minister Qaim Ali Shah and Interior Minister Rehman Malik co-chaired a high level meeting at Chief Minister’s House and reviewed law and order in the province, particularly Karachi. Shah said the federal government had fully supported prompt action against criminals and terrorists and he had been given free hand to handle the situation.
INFORMANTS: Malik said an operation cell was being established in the National Database and Registration Authority office in Karachi, while similar monitoring cells would be set up in the Sindh Home Department to coordinate and evaluate the situation every day. The meeting also decided that the names of people who provided information to authorities about terrorists and extortionists would be kept secret.
Sindh Governor Ishratul Ebad is due to meet President Asif Ali Zardari in the federal capital, meanwhile, to discuss the security situation in Karachi and the Muttahida Qaumi Movement’s return to the government.
