The law enforcement agencies (LEAs) and the Sindh Home Department allegedly continue to exaggerate the number of target killers arrested and cache of weapons recovered from them to satisfy the Supreme Court (SC) in the suo motu case proceedings. Sources said the Interior Ministry and the home department have been constantly providing conflicting figures of the detained suspects. They said the LEAs keep repeating the number of people arrested to display an inflated arrest sheet and to appease the apex court’s proceedings.
The Crime Investigation Department (CID) and the Special Investigation Unit (SIU) of the Karachi police are seemingly more interested in point-scoring, they added.
Interior Minister Rehman Malik told the media that the security forces had arrested 44 target killers in the ongoing operation from different parts of Karachi. Malik said the action was being taken against the gangsters of the Lyari and some of the criminals have fled to Balochistan. He said the LEAs were carrying out indiscriminate action and 44 accused had been arrested for targeted killings. Moreover, he denied ordering the release of any target killers.
In a press briefing, Sindh Additional Inspector General of Police Saud Mirza said over 1,400 suspects, including 48 target killers and 21 extortionists, had been arrested during the surgical operations. Mirza said the police had recovered 250 hand grenades, 476 pistols and 36 Kalashnikovs, and 2,000 raids have been conducted since August 25. According to sources, the disarray of the security agencies after the SC’s suo motu action could be gauged by the case of alleged target killer Sanaullah alias Chariya.
They said the SIU initially said in a press briefing that Chariya was arrested from Liaquatabad, and a day later, the unit announced Chariya’s arrest from Shah Faisal Colony. Sources also said CID Senior Superintendent of Police Fayyaz Khan told the media that a man arrested during an operation was a close accomplice of Baitullah Mehsud and provided Mehsud shelter when he visited Karachi for medical treatment.
However, the detained man was released due to unavailability of circumstantial evidence the next day of the news briefing, they added.
Aftab Ahmed, a resident of Lyari, told Pakistan Today that the Rangers and police personnel had raided his house and misbehaved with his family, including women. Police seized his TT pistol and 7mm rifle as well. “I showed them the licences for the weapons, but they asked me to collect the weapons from the police station,” Ahmed said. His allegedly legal weapons were also displayed before the media as illegal weapons.
He said the security agencies are merely making efforts to show the SC that they are taking action against the violators of law.
The SC has taken suo motu action on the poor law and order situation of the city, and the heads of the security agencies, especially the city police, have faced strong condemnation from Chief Justice of Pakistan Iftikhar Muhammad Chaudhry. Following that, the security forces started raiding different parts of the city, and arrested hundreds of suspects with weapons.