Imran calls for Karachi-like operation in Lahore

PTI chief accuses Sharif family of using Punjab police as militant wing

ISLAMABAD: The Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf chairman has called for a Karachi-like Rangers-led operation in Lahore, saying that the Punjab police has become a militant wing of the ruling Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz.

Imran Khan’s demand came a day after PTI member Mirza Tanvir was gunned down in Punjab’s provincial capital and nearly a week after young lawyer, Fahad Malik, was killed in the federal capital.



“The Rangers [should] be called out in Lahore immediately to act against target killers as well as militant outfits against whom the Punjab government is either unable or unwilling to act,” Imran said in a statement.



Tanvir was shot dead by four gunmen in Shah Alami Market on Saturday as he was returning home after attending a

court hearing of the double murder of his two brothers. His brothers, PTI workers Khurram and Arif, were killed in Hamza Shahbaz’s constituency in October last year during the local government elections.

Politically motivated targeted killings in Lahore are increasing at an alarming rate, Imran said while comparing the situation with that of Karachi before the Rangers operation.

“The police were fully aware of the threats being hurled at Mirza Tanvir, but they failed to provide any protection or move against those issuing the threats despite having full knowledge of who they were,” he complained.

He accused the ruling PML-N of using the police as their private militia.

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“Clearly, where the Sharifs fear a political defeat, they simply use their Gulloo force – which is what the Punjab police has been reduced to – to intimidate and even kill political opponents of the ruling party,” Imran alleged.

The PTI chief went on to accuse the Sharif brothers of destroying the Punjab police’s professionalism. This, Imran claimed, had sent a message to Tanvir’s killers that “crime pays because they can get away with it”.

The PTI chief further claimed that the police complicity in targeted killings had extended to the federal capital as he pointed out the recent murder of lawyer Malik.

Malik, a nephew of former Senate Chairman Muhammadmian Soomro, was shot dead in Islamabad on August 15. The PTI said the lawyer had been killed outside a police station by a known Islamabad-based criminal mafia.

“That criminals can carry out such killings right in front of a police station is not only shocking but also sends a signal to such criminals that they can act with impunity,” Imran said. The PTI chief added that unless police in the federal capital “reasserts its professionalism”, the Rangers may have to be called in there as well.

Published in The Express Tribune, August 22^nd,  2016.