Say no to drugs: City police given a week to eliminate gambling dens

IG says SHOs, DSPs who fail to do so will be dismissed

KARACHI:

A warning has been issued to gamblers, those running gambling dens and anyone assisting them — the police will rid the city of gambling dens in a week.

The Sindh police chief has set a final deadline for the police to eliminate gambling dens in the city and arrest proprietors and operators. During a meeting at his office on Monday, Sindh IG Ghulam Hyder Jamali warned that if the DSP or SHO of an area fails to do so, he will be dismissed.

The IG was presiding over a meeting to review the law and order situation in the city where it was decided that the law enforcers will focus on destroying gambling and drug dens. “If we learn of any gambling or drug dens operating in the city or similar complaints, the DSP and SHO of the area will be dismissed from service,” he said. “Another meeting will be held next week to review what has been done.”



Sources in the Sindh police’s special branch told THe Express Tribune that a list of these dens had been prepared. “Around 82 gambling and narcotic dens have been eliminated in the last eight months,” said a source. “There are around 97 such dens still operating in three zones of the city. Most of them are in the East zone (48), Central and West rank second with 34. South comes in third with 15 dens.”

On the hunt

The crackdown against these dens started back in September 2013. At the time, the Karachi police had claimed to have eradicated all gambling and narcotics dens in the city. Soon after, however, the proprietors of these dens started work again. Policemen who had been suspended during the crackdown and raids were also reinstated.

“The one good thing that happened during the previous raids was that the main gambling den, Ghas Mandi, was permanently shut down,” said another source. “The closure of Ghas Mandi led to the opening of two small gambling dens. Those are still operating.” He added that while they had shared a list of the operational dens with zonal DIGs, they couldn’t share it with low-ranking officers as they might be involved with the gamblers and dealers.

Discussing how this crackdown will be different, the source claimed that the proprietors and drug dealers will not be able to restart their business as the military had also involved itself in this campaign.

The source added that the police had been ordered to arrest proprietors, operators, supporters and facilitators as well as to register cases against those arrested.

On the agenda

At the meeting, the IG also reviewed reforms for the Crime Branch, Counter-Terrorism Department and how to equip them. Targeted police attacks and their follow-up investigations were also discussed.

Another police official who attended the meeting told THe Express Tribune that the Government of Sindh had approved three ordinances, which were sent by the police department for approval. The ordinances approved are the Sindh Sound System Regulation Ordinance 2015, the Sindh Security of Vulnerable Establishment Ordinance 2015 and the Sindh Information of Temporary Residence Ordinance 2015.

The official said that the police had been asked to implement these three ordinances. “Prayer leaders will be limited to using loud speakers only for call to prayer and khutba in Arabic,” he said.

Published in The Express Tribune, March 31^st, 2015.