MQM points finger at elected reps for Lyari carnage

• Sindh govt says Karachi’s peace being purposely deteriorated by ‘certain’ elements.

The MQM’s Rabita Committee Wednesday condemned the carnage in Lyari in the strongest possible terms.

In a statement, the committee expressed deep sorrow over the tragic incident in which scores of innocent people were killed and injured by Lyari gangsters.

It said: “For the last few years innocent and hardworking people of Lyari are being held hostage at the hands of gangsters of Lyari. These gangsters have been killing innocent men, women and children. Today (Wednesday), these gangsters carried out indiscriminate firing which resulted in the deaths of 17 blameless people including 4 women and 2 children. Scores of people including schoolchildren were injured”.

The committee said that elected representatives of the area have vanished and no one had come forward to rescue them from these gangsters. They deplored that it appeared as if the people had been left at the mercy of terrorists and gangsters.

“In the light of these facts, people of Karachi are justified in asking the question why killings, robberies and kidnapping are occurring at time when a targeted operation is going against criminal elements and terrorists in the city. Why are people of Lyari still hostage to criminals and gangsters?” the committee questioned.

The MQM committee said that innocents were being killed in the name of targeted operation extra-judicially. Raids were being conducted and detainees implicated in fabricated charges, it said.

It demanded an action from the prime minister, the interior minister and Governor of Sindh for the arrest of the gangsters.

On the other hand, Sindh Minister for Information Sharjeel Memon said that his government would not leave the people at the mercy of criminals.

While vehemently condemning the arson and carnage in Lyari, and casualties of innocent women and children in the subsequent use of crackers, the PPP minister said city police chief Shahid Hayat had been directed to take measures for controlling the volatile situation in Lyari.

He said the city’s situation was purposely being deteriorated by certain elements but the Sindh government was taking all steps to foil all such conspiracies and was, through law enforcement agencies under its administrative control, taking full scale action against the criminals.

He said the law enforcement agencies had since past six months of targeted operation against criminals arrested thousands of criminals and produced them in the courts of law while the courts concerned had awarded sentences to the criminals on charges of crimes proved during trials.

Memon said that the law enforcement agencies personnel had also suffered colossal losses as they sacrificed their lives for peace and tranquility in the metropolis and were in full determination with heightened spirits to chase the perpetrators till end.